


Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (2/27)

by earlgreytea68



Series: Chaosverse [9]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-02-25
Updated: 2008-05-19
Packaged: 2018-02-16 20:00:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 90,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2282727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/earlgreytea68/pseuds/earlgreytea68





	1. Chapter 1

THIS IS NOT CHAPTER 1. For whatever reason, AO3 refuses to let me import Chapter 1. So, you can read Chapter 1 here: http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html

Sorry for the inconvenience there, but I literally have no idea how to get AO3 to do what I want it to do.

Chapter Two

Jackie had grown used to it. At what point had she accepted the fact that, for all intents and purposes, she had a time-travelling alien for a son-in-law? She didn’t know. Just that somewhere along the way, it became natural for a spaceship to park in her parlour and for her daughter to tumble out of it hand-in-hand with a man who claimed to be 900 years old and yet looked like he’d barely seen 35 and acted like he’d just reached puberty. But her daughter loved him, for some reason, and she loved her daughter, so that was really the end of it. 

 

But she didn’t have to _like_ it. 

 

When she finished putting the groceries away, she walked into the parlour to find it deserted. Not only had neither one lifted a finger to help out, but they’d slunk back into the TARDIS. 

 

She sighed and sat on the couch, staring at the reality TV show the Doctor had abandoned. Well, at least he’d been watching something good. 

 

She was rather engrossed in it when the TARDIS opened, accompanied by enough hissing that Jackie looked up curiously. They were having some sort of disagreement, it sounded like, and it ended by the Doctor stumbling out of the TARDIS as if he’d been pushed and then giving her such a wide smile that she sat up suspiciously. 

 

Rose followed him out, with a mirroring wide smile. 

 

“What’s the matter?” asked Jackie. 

 

“Nothing’s the matter!” said Rose, brightly. “What makes you think that?”

 

Jackie looked from one to the other of them warily. “You’re actin’ weird—Wait a second. There’s not some sort of alien invasion goin’ on, is there?” She looked toward the window, as if she expected to see a spaceship hovering out there. 

 

“No, Mum. No alien invasion.” Rose sat on the couch beside her, facing her. The Doctor remained standing behind her, hands deep in his pockets. “I’ve— _we’ve_ —got somethin’ to tell you.”

 

Jackie’s eyes widened. “Oh, my God, you’re getting married!”

 

“Oh,” said Rose, awkwardly, as the Doctor fidgeted and looked as if he wanted to bolt back into the TARDIS. “No…Not…I’m pregnant.”

 

Jackie blinked. “With whose baby?”

 

Rose blinked back. “What?”

 

“Well, I mean, it’s not _his_ , is it?” Jackie waved a hand at him. At her daughter’s silence, she said, “But how can it—Isn’t he—”

 

“We’re not sure how it works,” Rose admitted. 

 

“But we’re going to figure it out,” inserted the Doctor, swiftly. 

 

“But it’s true,” continued Rose. “It’s happening.”

 

Jackie stared at the two of them in shock. She tried to think of something to say. 

 

And then she looked at her daughter’s face. And she smiled and reached out and cupped her cheek. “Are you happy, sweetheart?” 

 

Rose beamed the answer to the question, smiling widely and nodding. 

 

And Jackie didn’t have the heart to point out any of the millions of problems she saw with this situation. She returned the smile and said, “Good.”

 

**********************

 

The knock on the door took the Doctor by surprise. He was busy fiddling with a TARDIS lever that kept sticking (and definitely _not_ because he had been overzealous with it, as Rose seemed to think), and the idea of a _knock_ , on the _door_ , was so foreign to him that he stared at it until another knock sounded. 

 

He inched his way across the control room, feeling cowardly, and opened the door the merest crack. 

 

“Rose is sleeping,” he told Jackie. 

 

“Good. Because it’s you I want to talk to,” she announced, shoving her way past him. 

 

“Jackie,” he sighed, turning after her and trying to gesture importantly with the sonic screwdriver. 

 

“Is she in danger?” Jackie demanded. 

 

The Doctor prepared to retort automatically, his typical assurances of well-being, and then thought better of it. “I…don’t know,” he admitted. 

 

Jackie looked furious at that. “How can you not know?” she exclaimed. 

 

The Doctor ran a hand though his hair and walked back over to the console, where he aimed the sonic screwdriver randomly. 

 

He never turned it on. Instead he turned back to Jackie. “I don’t know much about…babies. They weren’t something we…Especially not human-Time Lord…”

 

Jackie regarded him for a second, then sank onto the captain’s chair. “Then what are we going to do?”

 

The Doctor leaned heavily against the console. “I’m going to learn.”

 

“Is it dangerous for her?”

 

“I don’t think so—”

 

“You don’t _think_ so?”

 

“What do you want me to tell you, Jackie?” he snapped. “Do you want me to say that I think we ought to get rid of this baby, immediately, before it has the chance to cause any trouble? It’s your _grandchild_. Just because it’s half mine doesn’t mean it’s less Rose’s.”

 

“I would never tell you to get rid of the baby,” she retorted. “I’m just saying that we can’t lose Rose.”

 

“As if I’d ever let that happen,” he sniffed, offended. 

 

Jackie regarded him for a second, in the tense silence that followed his last remark. Finally she said, “You’re wrong, you know.”

 

He lifted his eyebrows but said nothing. 

 

“You think that _I_ think you don’t love her. That’s not true. I know you love her. I can see that. _I_ think you love her too much.”

 

He knew what she didn’t say: that he loved her too much to have done the sensible thing long ago and brought Rose home and just left her behind. He turned back to the lever that had been giving him trouble and jiggled it about. 

 

“Hope you’re not plannin’ on takin’ me to Mars,” said Jackie.

 

“No,” he answered, primly. “The lever’s been sticking.”

 

“Tell me what you know-- _everything_ you know, however much it is--about human-Time Lord babies.”

 

The Doctor jiggled the lever a bit more, then turned back to Jackie and leaned back against the console. “They didn’t happen often, human-Time Lord children. I assumed that meant it was, well, rare and exceptional or something like that. But I think I was committing a logical fallacy. The reason human-Time Lord children were uncommon is because human-Time Lord _relationships_ were uncommon. Not the same thing. See? Here.” He turned to the monitor, pulling it around so Jackie could see it and pressing some buttons to call up a double helix on the screen. “This is Rose’s DNA here.”

 

Jackie had leaned forward in wonder. “How’d you get that, then?”

 

“Drew blood from Rose,” he answered, matter-of-factly. “To check on the progress of the baby, make sure everything’s okay. This sequence right here.” He highlighted it with the sonic screwdriver. “You lot haven’t any idea what its purpose is, but its main purpose is, let’s say, _evolutionary openness_. I’m not sure it’s a particularly common gene sequence, but I’ve no reason to believe it’s particularly _un_ common, either. Rose simply happens to have it.”

 

“And?” prompted Jackie. 

 

“That’s what’s enabling the pregnancy at the moment. It leaves her DNA open to the possibility of merging with the considerably more complex DNA that I happen to carry.” He tapped on the screen. “See, that’s my DNA. Triple helix.”

 

“What does that mean?” Jackie asked, staring intensely at the screen. 

 

“It means that what Rose’s body is trying to do right now is accommodate the creation of a creature actually more complex than it is itself. Or, so I think. It could be that her DNA will just swamp mine and she’ll have a completely human baby. But I suspect my DNA will be dominant.”

 

“You can’t tell that yet?”

 

“No. And that’s what makes me think that my genes are exerting dominance. Rose estimates to be far enough along that I should be able to extract the foetus’s DNA at this point. But I’m having difficulty doing it. The cells seem to be in a state of flux.”

 

Jackie looked at him worriedly. “And is that hurting her?”

 

He shook his head. “No. Not that I can tell.” He glanced back at his triple helix circling on the screen. 

 

“Not yet?” Jackie guessed. 

 

He took a deep breath and rubbed the back of his neck, eyes still on the triple helix. “I don’t know that it ever will. I just think it’s probably going to be exhausting for her. May require a longer gestational period than a typical human pregnancy.”

 

“How much longer?”

 

He shrugged. “A year?” he guessed. “It’s difficult to tell. But, considering how long it’s taking just to get the cells in the foetus stabilized, probably at least a year.”

 

“A year,” repeated Jackie. “And will she be sick the whole time?”

 

“I have no idea.”

 

“And what about the baby?”

 

“What about the baby?”

 

“Will she even be able to have it? Will the cells—how’d you say it?—stabilize?”

 

He was silent for a long moment. “It happens, Jackie. All I can tell you is it’s happened before. We should have a mother and a baby at the end of it all. One of them might have two hearts but they should both be perfectly healthy.” He looked at her finally then. “I promise.”

 

“You’ll figure out the way for this to be best for Rose? I’ll do whatever crazy alien thing you think will make this better.”

 

“Actually, you know what I think would help?”

 

“What?”

 

“A fresh cuppa?” he suggested hopefully. “And a chocolate biscuit?”

 

She shook her head with an exasperated sigh and slid off the captain’s chair. And then she said something that shocked him. “Is there a kitchen on this thing?”

 

**********************

 

Rose awoke to the Doctor laying in bed beside her, a book open on his lap. This was not unusual; the Doctor did not often sleep. He could survive, easily, on one or two hours a week, which he usually grabbed in catnap snatches. But she liked his presence in the bed, and he tried to accommodate her. It could be annoying when he tinkered in bed with the sonic screwdriver zapping about, but it was worth waking up next to him, warm and comforting and double-heart-beating. 

 

It was unusual, though, for him to be doing nothing more than watching her, brown eyes dark and intense.

 

She looked back and said sleepily, “Oh, no. What’s wrong?”

 

He blinked. “Nothing’s wrong.”

 

“What did the blood tests say, then?”

 

“That you’re having a baby.”

 

He was being maddeningly thick. As usual. “And?”

 

“Okay, that _we’re_ having a baby.”

 

She sighed. “Doctor…”

 

He kissed the pulse point on her wrist. “I think you’re having a complicated Gallifreyan. Can you deal with that?”

 

“Of course I can,” she said, in exasperation. “That’s what I expected.”

 

“It’s going to be complicated, Rose. It’s going to be exhausting and complicated, probably last longer and be more difficult than a usual human pregnancy, and there’s just me.”

 

“What do you mean, there’s just you?”

 

“We can’t take you to a normal doctor, Rose. We can’t have a normal doctor trying to gauge the development of a baby with two hearts and a triple-helix DNA. So it’s just me. You’re going to have to trust me.”

 

  
She traced the back of her knuckles along the freckles that dusted his cheek. “I do trust you,” she told him, softly.  


 

“I talked with your mother.”

 

“You left the TARDIS willingly and entered the lion’s den?” Rose couldn’t help the surprise that crept into her voice. 

 

“No, she came in here.”

 

“ _She_ came in _here_?” This was even more shocking. 

 

“Well, it’s not like I had much of a choice,” he grumbled. “She pushed her way in.” He paused. “We had tea,” he added, brightly. 

 

“You had _tea_? With my _mum_?” She picked up his hand and laid the back of it against her forehead. “Doctor, you’re _sure_ everything’s okay with the baby, because I think I’ve got a high fever that’s causing me to hallucinate.”

 

“You think you’re so funny,” he muttered. 

 

“I _am_ so funny. What happened with my mother?”

 

“I think…we came to an agreement,” he ventured. 

 

“An agreement?”

 

“She’s going to…not kill me.”

 

“This is a good agreement,” smiled Rose. 

 

“And try to trust me. And we’re going to make sure that this is as easy as we can make it.”

 

“That’s a very good agreement.”

 

“I’m not sure we’re going to be able to make it all that easy, Rose. No matter what I do, I’m not sure this will be…easy.”

 

“Can I ask you something?” she asked. 

 

“Of course.”

 

“Say that things are not easy, for however long they have to be not easy for…Will there a baby at the end of it? A complicated, Gallifreyan baby?”

 

He gazed at her for a second. Then he nodded. 

 

“I hope he gets your hair, then,” she grinned, and then rolled on top of him. “We can have sex during my long, complicated, Gallifreyan pregnancy, right?”

 

“Oh, yes,” he assured her. “That was the very first thing I researched.”

 

She giggled as she kissed him.

[_Next Chapter_](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html)


	2. Chapter 2

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (3/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)    
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, Jackie  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on.  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – Under the influence of [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)  , I have been persuaded to post this now. So here you are.  
Icon created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)  , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)  , who graciously offered it to me for my use.  
[](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[ **jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)  is the world's best beta, and graciously re-sent the document so that I could post this chapter while away on the Spring Training Trip. Also thanks to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/) , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1)

 

Chapter Three

The Doctor had never sought out trouble. He never backed down from it, of course, but he never actually sought it. Was it his fault if the trouble always found him, everywhere he went? Rose had a charming way of looking at it, saying that the TARDIS always took him straight to where the universe most needed him. So if he wanted a beach holiday with Rose and instead got a Gilpux attack, well, who were they to argue? And if he intended to bring her back after twelve hours and instead got twelve months, well, it meant he was right there to resolve the Slitheen disaster.

But suddenly there was no more trouble.

He wanted to go see the hylldops blooming, and instead they landed on some planet populated entirely by baby woodland animals. He wanted to stop at the asteroid bazaar to pick up some parts, and instead they landed in the middle of the writing of Brahms’s Lullaby (where he suggested a few German phrases and Rose promptly fell asleep just listening to the melody).

Piles of fluffy pillows and cuddly blankets appeared on his bed, and he wrinkled his nose at them, which amused Rose, as he didn’t even sleep.

She snuggled under a soft pink one and grinned at him. “I think the TARDIS is nurturing.”

The Doctor looked askance at the sudden profusion of bows on his bedcurtains. “Couldn’t she nurture somewhere else?”

And then, the next day, the TARDIS refused to leave the Vortex. Rose watched him scramble over and around and underneath the console, swearing and muttering and tearing his hands through his increasingly disastrous hair.

“I think you upset her,” she commented, cupping her hands around a cup of chamomile tea.

“When would I have upset her?”

“When you snapped at her for nurturing.” She reached her hand down to rub at the tiny bump that was the evidence of the complicated Gallifreyan baby they had on the way. The CGB, they called him, fondly, while they waited to settle on a better name for him. Or her. They couldn’t tell yet. “You wouldn’t snap at me for nurturing.”

“That’s…” He waved his hand as he pulled out huge lengths of wire. “Different.”

She continued to rub at her belly, soothing the anxious baby inside. He was doing somersaults. She wasn’t sure being stuck in the Vortex agreed with him. “I’m going to take a nap,” she said.

The Doctor grunted around the sonic screwdriver, pulling at the grating.

Rose wandered out again when she was hungry. She had the strangest cravings, for food she could barely describe. The Doctor credited the CGB. “Doctor,” she said, reaching for his hand.

He was poking violently at the console. “Yes,” he responded, absently.

“Can we go to the planet that had those rock things that tasted like, um, sunshine and fresh grass and meringue?” It was the best description she could think of.

“No,” he retorted. “We can’t go anywhere, because the TARDIS won’t move. And do you know why the TARDIS won’t move? Because she’s investing every single ounce of concentration—and she insists that every single ounce of concentration is needed—into making a new room. And do you know why the TARDIS is making a new room? Because she’s bloody! Nurturing!”

Rose looked at him, bewildered. “What?”

The Doctor led her down the hallway and threw open a door…to a nursery. A large, sunny nursery, with comforting cream furniture: cradle and crib, rocking chair and changing table, dresser and toy chest and hamper and bookshelf. There were rocking chairs and teddy bears, and a mobile composed entirely of planets, and a vast selection of books, and an overpowering amount of building blocks, and extravagant dolls, and a huge, elaborate model train set circling the room. Rose laughed, delighted. “Oh, but this is wonderful.”

“Don’t you think it’s a bit much?” he grumbled.

“It’s a room for a CGB,” she grinned. “It’s supposed to be a bit much, I think. And anyway, you told her she couldn’t nurture in our room.” She gave him a quick peck on the lips. “Tell her she can take all the time she needs to build us a nursery.”

But the CGB did not seem happy with his new nursery. He continued to protest, flailing about inside of her in a most unpleasant fashion. She tried to assuage him with food, but it had no effect, possibly because he was craving the sun-grass-meringue dessert and she couldn’t get it for him. She tried to read in the library, first something light and fluffy, then something dark and earnest, and neither choice, as she read them out loud to the CGB, seemed to please him. She finally gave in and retreated back to their room for another nap. She was not tired, but she thought her relaxation would quiet him.

It failed spectacularly. As far as she could tell, he began performing head butts against the wall of her womb.

Rose, biting at a nail worriedly, stared up at the ceiling and rubbed her other hand over her stomach and said, “Shhhh, shhhh,” in calm, soothing tones that had no visible effect. She finally pushed herself out of bed and went in search of the Doctor. He was not in the control room, and she located him after a brief search in the library. He was doing his speed-read thing, flipping through the pages of books in five seconds and then moving on to the next one. She hated when he did that--it was show-offy. When he read in bed, in the interest of not having to cart a hundred books in to their room every night, he read slowly. He said he liked it because it forced him to think about every word choice the author made, a proclamation that always amused her.

She stood at the shelf where he was and said, “I think something’s wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong,” he answered, sounding irritated, replacing a book and pulling out the next one. “The TARDIS is just sulking.”

“No. Not with the TARDIS. With the baby.”

He looked up in alarm. “What?”

“He won’t…It feels like he’s panicking. Trying to get out.”

“What?” The Doctor dropped the book where he was, reached for her stomach, and placed a hand on it in time to be attacked by a particularly vicious kick. Rose winced, and the next moment found herself firmly ensconced in the Doctor’s arms as he carried her out of the room.

“I’m sure everything’s fine,” she said, draping her arms around his neck.

“Oh, of course,” he assured her, jovially, as he pushed them both through the door into the infirmary and laid her onto the examining couch. “Let me just see what’s going on here.” He pulled out what looked like a small video camera and waved it, buzzing, over the swell of her abdomen. By their estimates, she was six months pregnant, but the swell of her stomach was only noticeable if one looked very closely. The Doctor assured her this was normal, that the CGB was simply developing more slowly. As he waved his instrument, almost instantly, the baby’s double heartbeat filled the room. “There he is,” said the Doctor, satisfied, peering at the screen.

Rose had known the baby was alive; she could feel that quite firmly. Hearing his heartbeat did not soothe her at all. “Can you see him? What’s he doing?” The Doctor frowned, and Rose began to panic. “What? What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Heartbeat’s racing a bit,” said the Doctor, putting his instrument aside.

“Why?” asked Rose, anxiously.

“You need to calm down. You’re making him nervous.”

“I haven’t done anything!” she protested. “I’ve been calm! You’re the one who’s been stalking around here sulking because the TARDIS is building us a—”

“Oh,” said the Doctor, suddenly, looking at her stomach.

“What?”

He reached out and placed his hands on her stomach and closed his eyes. Rose, confused, cocked her head, but the question died on her lips, because suddenly, inside of her, she felt the CGB calm down, stop thrashing about, settle.

“Oh,” breathed the Doctor, without opening his eyes or moving. “That was my fault, little one. I’m sorry.”

“How was it your fault?” Rose whispered, afraid to talk more loudly for fear of disturbing the CGB.

The Doctor opened his eyes and pushed his hands through his hair. “He can feel me.”

“What?”

“I’d forgotten that…He can feel me. I can feel him, too, just this tiny, little tickle at the back of my mind, because that’s all he is right now, an infinitesimally small presence. It wouldn’t be noticeable at all except that…There’s only us. I can feel him, although I’ve been ignoring it because I hadn’t realized exactly what it was. And he can feel me. Since there’s only me, I must be absolutely overwhelming to him. And I was agitated, about the TARDIS, and I panicked him, and it was my fault, Rose, I’m sorry.”

She stared at him. “He can feel you? Read your moods? Already?” Her hands went to her stomach. Never had the baby inside of her seemed so very…alien.

“Wellllllll, not very well, but he’s beginning to pick up on it. No wonder we were Loomed. Poor thing was frantic, barely has a consciousness but all it knew was that he was frantic, and it’s because the only mood he could feel was mine.”

“And what did you do?” asked Rose, still trying to wrap her mind around this.

“I sort of…It’s kind of like stroking his subconscious, I suppose—”

“You cuddled him,” she realized.

“I what?”

“You held him, you cuddled him. He was crying, and you held him and you made him feel safe, except that it all happened in your minds.”

“I suppose,” the Doctor agreed. “In a manner of speaking.”

Rose dropped her head back against the pillow on the bed and closed her eyes. She felt thoroughly superfluous. All of the Doctor’s talk about Looms, and that was exactly what she felt like: a Loom, an incubator. That she could have been any woman the Doctor had plucked off the nearest planet. She had wanted a baby with him, she had, and now she was worried that she wasn’t going to have a baby with him. She was going to have his baby, his CGB, and they would talk together in their heads and be completely self-sufficient and she would be nothing. She had tried for hours to calm the baby down; the Doctor had paid attention for five minutes and fixed everything.

“Rose,” said the Doctor, by her ear, in concern, and she realized she was crying, tears leaking from underneath her eyelids. “Rose, it’s alright now, love. No reason to cry.”

“It’s hormones,” she choked out, too exhausted to resist him when he gathered her against him, squeezed them both onto the examining couch in a cuddle. And it did feel good, but didn’t make her feel any less incapable, suddenly, of the situation she’d gotten herself into, or him any more capable of understanding the issue.

“There, there,” he murmured, brushing fond kisses over her hair. “I’m sorry the CGB frightened you.”

“Can we go home?” she sobbed against him.

“Of course we can. As soon as the TARDIS lets us move again.”

“Can you ask her to let us move? Can you tell her I want to go home?”

Even as she said it, the TARDIS gave a sudden lurch out of the Vortex, and the Doctor started in surprise. “I’ve got to go fly her,” he said.

Rose nodded as he slid off the table.

He regarded her for a moment, looking pitiful and depressed, still sniffling. He didn’t want to leave her alone. “Come watch me,” he said, reaching for her hand.

Rose sat stiffly in the captain’s chair while he flew, offering him weak smiles when he made jokes. They landed in her mother’s parlour, and Jackie was waiting when they emerged, throwing her arms around Rose eagerly and then pulling back.

“Let me look at you,” she said, and then frowned when no huge belly presented itself to be fawned over. “But…” She looked up at her daughter. “How far along are you now?”

“Six months. But the Doctor says it’s normal,” replied Rose, and she could hear the exhaustion in her voice.

Her mother’s eyes sharpened on her. “What’s wrong?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. Just tired.” She turned to the Doctor. “No offense to the TARDIS. Or to you. But I need to sleep in a bed that’s not moving for a little while.”

“Of course,” said the Doctor, watching her closely as she moved down the hall to her bedroom and shut the door.

Jackie immediately shoved him.

“Oi!” he protested, loudly.

“Shh!” she chastised him. “Keep your voice down! Don’t disturb her! What did you do to her?”

“I didn’t do anything to her!”

“She’s been crying.”

“It wasn’t my fault. Welllll, not entirely. The CGB upset her. I’d forgotten about—”

“The what?” asked Jackie.

“The CGB. The baby. It’s what we call the baby.”

“How could the baby upset her? It’s barely even a baby at this point.”

“She thought there was something wrong with it. Everything’s fine now, but it was a bit of a scare.”

Jackie narrowed her eyes at him like she didn’t believe him. “I’m going to go check on her,” she announced.

**********************

Rose thought, if she ignored the knock on the door, her mother would go away. She lay on her side, facing the window, away from the door, and tried to refrain from sniffling so her mother would think she was sleeping.

The door cracked open. “Rose?” called her mother, softy, tentatively.

Rose stayed still and silent.

Then her mother walked around to check on her, and then there was no disguising the fact that she was, quite clearly, a mess.

“Oh, Rose,” said her mother, sitting on the bed beside her. “What’s wrong?”

Rose shook her head helplessly. How could she begin to say what was wrong? Her mother would say “I told you so.”

“What is it?” she demanded. “What’s he done?”

“Oh, he hasn’t…Not really…Not anything I didn’t…I’m going to be a bad mother,” she sniffled.

“Oh, sweetheart.” Her mother reached out and pushed her hair tenderly away from her face, and it felt nice to be mothered instead of having to do the mothering. “No, you’re not. You’re going to be a fabulous mother. You couldn’t be a bad mother if you tried. Every woman thinks she’s going to be a bad mother. You’re just panicking. You’ll turn out okay.”

She shook her head again, trying to stop crying and not be so ridiculous. “Maybe if I had a normal human baby. Instead I’m having a CGB.”

“What is that?” asked Jackie.

“It’s what we call the baby.”

“I gathered as much from the Doctor. Why can’t you give him a normal name?”

Rose ignored the question. “What did the Doctor say?”

“He said the CFG had upset you.”

“CGB,” corrected Rose, swiping at her tears. “It stands for ‘complicated Gallifreyan baby.’ And that’s what I’m having: a complicated Gallifreyan baby. And I’m scared, Mum.”

“Oh, baby.” Jackie reached out and pulled her into a comforting hug. “Of course you are. But you’ll be alright. He loves you, you know. He’ll never let anything happen to you. If I thought otherwise, d’you really think I’d ever let you leave?”

“He can read the baby’s mind.”

“He can what?”

“He and the baby, they’ve got this mind connection, it’s a Time Lord thing. We were having an issue, with the TARDIS, she was making us a nursery, and the Doctor was annoyed about it, because we couldn’t move while she was making the nursery, and the baby could feel that he was upset, and it upset the baby, and then the Doctor used their connection to tell him that everything was alright and calm him down. Mum, I spent hours telling the baby everything was okay. I read to him and sang to him and rubbed at my stomach. The Doctor did his magic mind thing for two minutes and everything was fine.”

“Well,” said Jackie, after a second. “That trick should come in handy when the baby’s screaming bloody murder and you can’t figure out why.”

Rose pulled back from her embrace. “But don’t you see, Mum? That’s the problem! How am I supposed to be his mother if I can’t…If I have to rely on the Doctor to tell me everything my baby needs. What’s he going to think about me? He’ll think I’m totally useless and he’ll—” Rose cut herself off, suddenly realizing that she had a bigger issue. It was not just that she suspected she was going to be a useless mother, but that she was going to end up being useless to the Doctor as well. There would be no one on the TARDIS that needed her. She had wanted to give him a baby, to give him someone who would outlast her, but she saw at that moment that the baby would replace her. He was no longer going to need a silly human to drive away the loneliness. He would have this complicated Gallifreyan baby that would be just like him, and they would take care of each other, in their complicated Gallifreyan ways, and what would they need with a yellow-and-pink girl whose existence was just a blink of an eye? Worse than thinking that she would be an absolute failure and her baby wouldn’t love her was her recognition that she was actually jealous of this baby. Of her own child.

Her mother was watching her in concern. “Rose?” she asked, carefully.

“What if the baby hates me?” she whispered. “Or I hate him?”

“He won’t. You won’t.” Jackie cupped her hands around her daughter’s face, her heart aching. “You need to trust me on this. He’s your baby. You love him already, don’t you? Weren’t you just panicking because you thought he was hurt?”

Rose swallowed, catching her breath, and nodded. She was being silly. Surely she was being silly. It was all going to be fine. This horror scenario would not come to pass. There was room in the Doctor’s hearts to love two people. He had two of them, after all. And surely her baby would love her. Every baby, of every species, loved its mother instinctively. Wasn’t that so?

“Rose,” said her mother.

Rose made a sound to indicate she was listening.

“You need to talk to him. You can’t make yourself frantic worrying you won’t be able to take care of an alien baby. You need to ask him questions about taking care of an alien baby. He’s the only resource you have on this. You are never going to make it through this if you stop talking to him.”

She knew she was right, but the thought of forcing the Doctor into a serious conversation about her role as the mother of his child made her feel like sleeping for a thousand years. But she nodded. “I know,” she agreed, because she did. “I know.”

[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html#cutid1)  
 </span>


	3. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (4/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (4/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)     
 **Rating** – Adult   
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on.  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)   , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)   , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

[](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)    is my fabulous beta. She's also a super-secret spy. And she's spectacular at both jobs. Also thanks to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)   , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through. 

**Additional Author's Note** \-- Great minds think alike! [](http://dettiot.livejournal.com/profile)[ **dettiot**](http://dettiot.livejournal.com/) also used a crystal pendant in her wonderful story, [My True Love Gave to Me](http://dettiot.livejournal.com/tag/my+true+love+gave+to+me) (which I highly recommend).

  
[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) - [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1)

  
_Chapter Four_

Rose didn’t want to have the conversation in her mother’s flat. She didn’t want the Doctor even more defensive about it, as he would inevitably be if they talked about it in her mother’s house. So she suggested they leave, go somewhere. He seemed relieved to have her back, bounced about the TARDIS enthusiastically. She marvelled that he could read the mind of a baby who hadn’t even a gender yet, and still could be so thick when it came to understanding how she was feeling. Did he really think that she was all fixed, happy, _carefree_?

 

But because he was so earnestly determined that she be fixed, happy, carefree, and because she felt guilty for _not_ being that way, she let him take her to this pleasure planet he knew about. Due to an unusually thin crust, the oceans of the planet were like hot baths, and she did find it incredibly relaxing. He, perhaps uncharacteristically sensing she needed space, left her pretty much to her own devices while he wandered about the planet and managed not to start any wars. She was somewhat impressed that the day had been so snag-free. The TARDIS must have gotten over its nurturing phase, or thought they deserved a break. 

 

When they returned to the TARDIS, she was so relaxed she went to their room and changed immediately into a set of comfy flannel pyjamas. She tracked the Doctor down in the library, sprawled on the couch and watching _Star Wars_ , which he did only so he could complain about everything they did wrong. She smiled at him and wordlessly crawled onto the couch. He shifted so that she could fit against him, and she smiled in contentment. 

 

He nuzzled at her neck. “Do you feel better, then?” he asked. 

 

“I do, actually,” she admitted. 

 

“Good.” He planted a kiss on the top of her head then settled back against the couch, apparently content just to hold her while he watched the movie. 

 

“You knew I didn’t feel well?” she asked, after a moment. 

 

“I’m really not nearly so thick as you think I am, you know. See, there they go again. With all this…desert landscape. Tatooine is 97.8% water.”

 

She’d heard this all before. She suspected he had a thesis on the subject tucked away somewhere that he was just itching to share with the general pop culture public. “I don’t think you’re thick. I just think sometimes you’d rather babble about Tatooine than ask me what’s wrong.”

 

He was silent. It was a silence of displeasure, she could feel it. “Rose. You just said you felt better. So there isn’t anything wrong.”

 

God, he could be so bloody infuriating. She sat up and folded her arms. “You need to ask me what’s wrong.”

 

“I’m not playing games with you,” he snapped. “Don’t wait for me to _ask_ if there’s something wrong.”

 

“You see, that’s what I mean,” she said, helplessly. 

 

“What you mean about what?”

 

“I’m not playing a game with you. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that, when you can see that there’s something wrong with me, you might ask me about it.”

 

“And I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that, if there’s something wrong with you, you might tell me about it.”

 

“Oh, we’re so different,” sighed Rose, closing her eyes and leaning back against the couch. 

 

He startled her, after a long moment, by pausing the movie, the sudden silence causing her to jump. He startled her even more by planting a kiss on her shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

 

Rose stared at the frozen image of Luke Skywalker on the television. “I don’t understand him.”

 

“Who?” he asked. 

 

“The baby,” she admitted. “I don’t understand the baby.”

 

He looked at her for a second, clearly not comprehending. “What don’t you understand about the baby?”

 

“He’s complicated! And Gallifreyan!”

 

“He isn’t that complicated, Rose.”

 

“In six months, my body has just about figured out that it’s supposed to be triple-helixing the DNA.”

 

“Rose, that’s just—”

 

“And he’s here inside of me, and he can barely even be called a baby still, and yet he had a fit because he could sense you were upset. And I spent hours, Doctor, _hours_ trying to tell him everything was alright. And he wouldn’t believe me. It was you he wanted. It was you he _needed_. All I was doing was…standing in the way.”

 

The Doctor stared at her, clearly perplexed. “That isn’t true.”

 

“What part of that isn’t true?” she demanded. 

 

“You’re his mother. Of course he needs you.”

 

“Sure, because without me, right now, he couldn’t survive. But someday, Doctor, he’ll be crawling around on this floor and he’ll be wondering about the useless human whose mind he can’t feel.”

 

“That is not at all what’s going to happen—”

 

But now she had gotten started, she couldn’t stop. “And you’ll be in your own little Gallifreyan club, the two of you, and you’ll never look up to notice that I might need you to bloody ask me what’s bloody wrong!”

 

The Doctor’s eyes widened. “Well, this is a new one. You’re yelling at me for things I haven’t even done yet.”

 

Rose shook her head a bit, unamused, and said tiredly, “I can just about hold your attention for two minutes _now_. I can’t imagine what it’ll be like when you’ve got a CGB to play with instead.”

 

He reached out, took her chin firmly between his fingers, and forced her to turn her head to look at him. She was startled to see he was very plainly angry. “Hold my attention for two minutes? Is that what you think? Rose Tyler. You _captivate_ me. D’you think I run around babbling to you because I’m _not_ paying attention to you? Is that what you think I do when I’m not paying attention to someone? I’m trying to share every mad thought that pops into my head because until I share it with _you_ , it doesn’t mean anything to _me_. How can you possibly think you don’t hold my attention for two minutes? If we had the time, you’d hold it for two millennia. _With ease_. So stop thinking that somehow the baby will come along like some shiny piece of foil to distract me.”

 

Rose was astonished; she couldn’t think of anything to say. Air whooshed out of her wordlessly. 

 

“And another thing: I don’t think you realize how much babies are hardwired to love a mother. Even babies that are Loomed crave a mother. And it’s worse when you’re formed with her heartbeat always in your ear, with your blood and your breath and everything you are coming from _her_. In no universe could you give birth to a baby who would think you superfluous, do you understand me? By the time he’s born, he’ll be smart enough to realize that he can feel one of us in his mind but that it’s the one he _can’t_ feel in his mind that he’ll most want holding him close when he’s had a bad dream or just needs to feel safe. He may have two heartbeats but he’ll want your one near him, and he’ll want it elementally. The mind thing is not as big a deal as you seem to think it is. Especially not now that I’ve remembered it. I’ve shielded myself. He should barely be able to feel me at all.”

 

 She swallowed. “I—”

 

“There’s nothing to a Gallifreyan baby. Nothing different from a human baby. You will _never_ be thought useless. Not by the baby. And certainly never by me. _Useless_? You’re the most important person in the universe. If I don’t have you, everything falls to pieces.”

 

“You’re exaggerating,” she said, because she had to say something like that or she would start crying. It was the closest he had ever come to saying that he loved her, and she wanted to clasp it to the inner recesses of her mind as a cherished memory. 

 

“Only the tiniest bit,” he allowed. He slid his hand up to cup her cheek, his touch tender now, his anger having faded. “This is going to be fine, you’ll see. We’ll have the CGB, and everything will be better than we could ever have imagined. Do you know how I know?”

 

“How?” she asked, wide-eyed.

 

“Because the only person in the universe more stubborn than me is you. So if any two people are going to have things turn out exactly as they want them, it’ll be us.”

 

“Yes, I have found that things with us always turn out exactly the way we expect they will,” she drawled. 

 

He grinned. “Oh, but they do.”

 

“How do you figure that?” she challenged. 

 

“Because they always end up with us, in the TARDIS, together.”

 

She chuckled a bit. “I suppose that’s true.”

 

“Here.” He shifted, reached into his inside pocket. “I was going to wait to give you this, until the baby was born, but I think maybe you need it more now.” He handed across a flat box. 

 

Intrigued, she opened it. Inside, was a crystal pendant on a chain, very simple, and, she thought, odd. The Doctor was not much of a gift-giver. To get her something so basic as a crystal pendant seemed unusual. “It’s beautiful,” she said, automatically, tracing its contours. “Thank you.”

 

“Put it on,” he encouraged. He seemed tickled pink, could barely keep still. 

 

She fastened it around her neck and smiled at him. “Will it do?”

 

“Hopefully. Let’s see if it works.” He looked at it closely. 

 

She looked down to see what was so interesting, and uttered a small squeak of surprise, because the pendant had turned a pulsing, sunny shade of yellow. 

 

“There,” he said, pleased. “Lovely.”

 

“It changes colours?”

 

“Not quite. Not exactly. It’s responding to my mood.”

 

She looked up at him. “What?”

 

“It’s very low level telepathic. A showy sort of thing, not quite the same as having a direct mind link. But it should work well enough with the CGB, who’ll be broadcasting thoughts all over the place wildly until he gets them under control. You’ll learn the colorus: generally blue for sad, black for anger, things like that. Green for amused,” he added, as an afterthought. 

 

“It’s a mood ring!” she exclaimed. 

 

He frowned. “Only accurate.”

 

“Of course. Where did you get this?”

 

“On the planet today.”

 

He had known, all along, that she would want something like this, something to connect her to the baby the way he was. The baby still wouldn’t be able to feel her, but it was at least _something_. 

 

“So will it read my thoughts?” she asked, thinking maybe they could get a matching one for the CGB. 

 

“Unfortunately not.” He shook his head. “It’s so low-level, it really only works properly with beings that are telepathic to begin with. Otherwise, it might as well be a mood ring. It’s tuned into me at the moment, because I’m the strongest mood about. Once I shield myself, the CGB will be able to come across.”

 

“This is _lovely_ ,” she said. “Thank you.” She looked down again at its pulsing yellow glow. “What does yellow mean?”

 

“Very, very happy,” he replied. 

 

She smiled and leaned up to kiss him. He shifted, cupping her head, trying to manoeuvre her underneath him. She smiled against his lips, then pulled back for a second to help him. 

 

There was a bit of scrambling. The Doctor tossed some cushions out of his way as she settled, then pulled him down by his tie. 

 

“What does scarlet mean?” she whispered into his mouth. 

 

He pulled back a bit, looked down at the crystal, now a lurid red light in the valley between her breasts. “It means I’m not having a single thought that I’d want the CGB to read,” he answered, unbuttoning her top. 

 

“I can’t read thoughts,” she said, “so tell me.”

 

“Thought number one. Remove your top.” His tongue rested against his front teeth as he concentrated on struggling with the buttons. 

 

“You know,” she remarked. “It’s a pyjama top. You could have just pulled it over my head.”

 

“Thought number two. It’s much more romantic to unbutton your top. Like unwrapping a present.” He was stalled on the last button, tugging at it. 

 

“You know how you always just sonic screwdriver through the ribbon on presents?” she asked, amused. 

 

“Thought number three,” he said, giving up on the button. 

 

“Get this seduction back on track?” she guessed, grinning up at him. 

 

He frowned briefly. “Snog you senseless,” he said, before capturing her mouth in a fierce kiss that stole her breath away. His tongue swept confidently, pausing to coax at the spots he knew she loved most, and she tangled her hands in his hair and kissed him back. 

 

He dragged his lips off hers, along her cheek, as she dropped her head back and gasped for air. “Thought number four,” he mumbled, tracing a sure path along her jawline with nips of his teeth. “Measure your heart rate.” He ducked his head, pressed his tongue against the pulse in her neck. His hands slid over her hips and up her torso, and she felt her heart beat faster as he managed to keep his balance and coax his knee between her legs, causing her to arch against him. “Racing,” he murmured, punctuating the remark with a love bite that she knew was quite hard enough to leave a mark behind. “Shall I stop?”

 

“Don’t stop.” She hooked a leg around his hips, as if she worried he might try to back away. And even through all the various layers of fabric separating them, she could feel him against her vividly enough that she could feel the wild pulse of her heart reflected in the throb between her legs. “Never stop.”

 

“Never, ever.” His mouth was roving along her collarbone now, pressed so closely to her skin that his words were slurred, leaking out around his flashes of tongue and teeth and lips. “Thought number six. No, five. Taste—every—single—inch—of—you.” His tongue finally licked around a nipple, and her hands clenched in his hair as she jerked against him. 

 

She was panting now, feeling assaulted by him as he assuaged his oral fixation by lavishing attention on her breasts and occupied his hands with stroking his fingertips along her ribcage, down toward her hips, along the waistband of her pyjama bottoms. She kept her hands in his hair, sighing with pleasure as he licked and sucked and toyed. Normally, she was a more active lover, would have at least unbuttoned his shirt by this point, or wrested control from him and picked up the pace. He was inclined to be a leisurely lover, while she was inclined to be impatient, which made sex normally a battle of strong wills that she found actually increased the pleasure of it immeasurably. But there was something different about his foreplay. Something… _adoring_. It kept her relatively still, relatively passive, as she enjoyed and reacted. 

 

“Thought number nine,” he said, pulling away from her a bit. 

 

She opened her eyes with great effort, looking down at him where he rested between her breasts. His eyes were so dark she would have called them black. “You skipped seven and eight,” she pointed out. 

 

“No,” he said, his voice low as he lazily rubbed his finger along her nipple, watching her as her eyelids fluttered. “I’m keeping them to myself. Thought number nine. Remove clothing.”

 

She watched him as he shrugged out of his coat and tossed it aside, worked quickly with the buttons his shirt and threw that aside as well, pulled the vest over his head and flung it. 

 

“Thought number ten,” he continued, leaning back down. “Keep tie on, because I know you like it.”

 

She grinned, using said tie to pull him down to her for another kiss. She kept the tie wrapped around one hand while she sent the other one down the skin of his back, tracing muscle and spine as their tongues warred with each other. 

 

“Take off more clothing,” she gasped at him. 

 

He grunted affirmatively, even as he bent down to lose himself in another kiss. 

 

“Take off more of _my_ clothing,” she amended. 

 

She felt him move, fumbling with his trousers, taking longer than it should have because he refused to relinquish the kiss. As a result, when the pause button on the movie finally slipped and the cable broadcast, loudly, some alien reality show, he jumped, startled, wavered on his balance, sprawled a bit inelegantly over her before he could catch himself, and bit her lip a bit harder than he’d intended. 

 

“Thought number eleven,” he bit out, irritated, reaching for the remote. “Shut that bloody thing off. Sorry.” He slid off her, quickly shedding trousers and pants before rolling back onto her. She wriggled, trying to work her way out of her pyjama bottoms, but he stilled her. “Not yet,” he said, and then paused over her, looking seriously down at her face. 

 

She stared back up at him. “What?”

 

“Thought number twelve. Do not get distracted by the Tatooine thing.”

 

“Oh, you—” she began, and then cut herself off with a sharp intake of breath as he reached one clever hand down to stroke between her legs, through the flannel of the pyjamas and the cotton of her knickers, and she arched into him as he pressed against her, cajoling, dancing, teasing. “Take them off me,” she commanded, breathlessly, desperate to feel him against her, not separated by all of the layers. 

 

“Not yet,” he said, clever fingers never pausing. 

 

Her knickers were so drenched she thought surely he could feel them through the pyjama bottoms. “Doctor,” she begged. One hand was still clutching his tie, keeping her anchored to the world, but she moved the other down to tug at the irritation of the pyjama bottoms. He grabbed with his free, non-torturing hand, threaded their fingers together, moved her hand safely up and out of the way where he kept it, trapped. 

 

She whimpered in frustration. His touch brushed, lighter than she would have liked, then pressed, briefly, as she was craving, in no discernible rhythm. He circled and skipped, and then, abruptly, settled to business, finding the most perfect spot. She sobbed in relief, moving him against him, using his tie to pull him down into a kiss. She felt herself coiling tighter, could feel the climax just around the corner, reached for it…and the Doctor removed his hand. 

 

She writhed and wriggled, desperate for relief, pulsing on the edge of it, the unfulfilled pleasure slicing through her blood. 

 

“Thought number thirteen,” he said against her lips. 

 

“Can’t you take my clothes off me?” she pleaded with him. 

 

“Tell me how much you want me.” His hand, the one that should have been finishing off the job, not the one keeping her hand captive, rested on her belly, crept under her waistband, the tips of his fingers just brushing underneath her knickers. 

 

“Oh, God,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut as she bucked her hips in an effort to get his hand to move lower. 

 

“Tell me.” His voice was rough This lovemaking, she thought, was not going to end in a slow, leisurely build. It was going to be quick and fierce and _brilliant_. She had not thought she could get any more aroused, but she felt her breath quicken at the thought. 

 

He’d asked her a question, hadn’t he? She fought for coherence. _Tell me how much you want me_. Bloody hell. She couldn’t think of a response. “I can’t tell you,” she gasped, honestly. “There aren’t any words to describe how much I want you.”

 

He moved immediately, bringing both hands to push at the clothing between them. “Thought number fourteen,” he growled. “Get everything off you.” She lifted her hips to help him, squirmed about, trying to kick them completely off. “Get inside you,” he bit out. “ _Now_.”

 

She scrambled with her feet, managing to get the pyjamas off her but struggling with the knickers. Impatient, he reached, grabbed for them, pulled them off of her and threw them off the couch. And then, before she had time to take a breath, he drove inside her. 

 

“ _Oh_ ,” she said, arching to meet him. She was hovering so close to shattering that she was scared to move. Somehow, now that they were actually joined, she did not want the experience to end. 

 

He drew back then thrust forward with a guttural noise against her throat, burying himself deeper inside of her. 

 

“Rose,” he said, pushing further into her, and she shifted to take him as deep as she could. He lifted his head, looked down at her. “Rose, I can’t…” He squeezed his eyes shut, plainly trying to slow the pace. 

 

“Come undone for me,” she whispered, scraping her nails along his back. 

 

He opened his eyes; they were deep, bottomless, and unfocused with pleasure. “Rose,” he whispered back. “I am always undone for you.” He leaned down to kiss her, kept kissing her as he began to move, as the rhythm spiralled away from them and they chased after it. He kissed her through her orgasm, as the stars exploded within her and she contracted around him and he swallowed the cries that she uttered, helplessly, as the wave tore through her, as her hands fisted against his shoulders, and he only tore his mouth away to drag down oxygen as his own climax began to break over him. 

 

“Rose,” he gasped, meeting her gaze as she opened her eyes. She smiled at him, slow and sultry and satisfied, and felt him gasp again as his own orgasm finally crested and broke over him, and, groaning, he buried his head against her neck as he rode it out. 

 

He collapsed, panting, over her, and she pushed her sweat-dampened hair off her face and brushed at his own damp hair. Her heart rate was slowing, and she shifted, curling her toes and stretching out a kink in her neck. The sofa, narrow and cramped, was never one of her favourite places to make love. Although he had rather outdone himself this time around. 

 

Love filled her. She kissed the side of his head fondly and decided to wait a moment before complaining he was heavy. And also that the pyjama top he’d never quite managed to take off of her was bunched uncomfortably underneath her. At that moment, with the pleasure he’d caused still singing through her, she thought he’d earned some recovery time. 

 

He shifted finally, taking one last deep gulp of air, and tried to roll off of her but found himself with nowhere to go. “Bloody hell,” he muttered, collapsing back down after being thwarted. “Thought number…whatever. Sex on the sofa is…less then optimal.”

 

“Oh, I wouldn’t say the sex was less than optimal, Doctor.”

 

The prospect of being complimented gave him energy enough to lift his head. “Oh, no? What would you say?”

 

She moved, grabbing at the crystal pendant, which had shifted during the sex so that it was laying beside her. It was pulsing yellow, which was nice to know, but, as she watched it, it made a definite shift toward scarlet. She looked at the orange, bemused, than back at him. “Is orange fishing for compliments, then?”

 

“No, orange is thoroughly sated Time Lord thinking more impure thoughts.”

 

“Well, you skipped thoughts number eight and nine. What were they?”

 

“I skipped seven and eight.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “And I’ll save them for another time. Wouldn’t do to use every good idea all at once, would it?”

 

“Also, it might kill us.”

 

“Best regeneration ever,” he grinned. 

 

“Come to bed with me?”

 

“Of course.” He slid off her, stood up lightly, and pulled off the tie that was now hopelessly skewed around his neck. 

 

She stood as well, pulling off the pyjama top, and, yawning, leaving it behind her in the library, while they walked, hand in hand, toward their bedroom. 

 

She leaned against him, nudging him with her shoulder. “Thank you,” she said, softly. 

 

He was silent for a moment of hesitation. Then he said, gravely, “Thank _you_.”

_[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) _   



	4. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (5/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (5/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)      
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, Jackie, OC   
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on.  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – In which a CGB is born.

The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)    , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)    , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

[](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)     is absolutely, positively NOT a super-secret spy. But she is an extraordinary beta. Also thanks to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)   , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

 [Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) - [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) - [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html)

  
_Chapter Five_

She spent the first six months barely pregnant. But by the time she hit the nine month point, she _looked_ like a woman who was nine months pregnant. She was enormous, looked ready to give birth at any time…except the Doctor said there was at least another three months ahead of her. He was monitoring the status of the CGB’s development, and said the lungs were nowhere near fully formed, and the skull was still not complete, but he was able to say, proudly, “It’s a boy.” Which at least limited somewhat the universe of names they could fight over. 

 

“Jack,” she suggested, from the captain’s chair, where she barely fit anymore. 

 

He shook his head before disappearing under the console. “Nothing so _human_ , Rose. I told you.”

 

She sighed. “I’m not giving him a title. I’m not going around calling my own baby the Taxi Driver or something.”

 

“Be serious, Rose.”

 

“What about Jefferson? Or Jamie?” She flipped through her baby name book, frowning in concentration. 

 

“No and no,” he pronounced. 

 

“What about…Richard?”

 

The Doctor emerged and frowned at the book in her hand. “What’s that you’re reading?”

 

She held it up so he could see the cover. 

 

“ _Ten Thousand and One Names for Baby_?” he read, horrified. “Good Lord, no. Where’d you get that?”

 

“The library.”

 

“The library _here_? On the TARDIS?” His voice was an indignant squeak. He glared at the central console, thinking traitorous thoughts. “Rose, we can’t give him a name like _Richard_.” He walked over to her, leaned down and spoke directly to her stomach. “What do you think, CGB? Do you like the name Richard?” He cocked his head, as if listening. “Oh, our special Time Lord connection tells me he hates the name Richard.” She smiled at him as he planted a kiss on the enormous swell of her abdomen. Then he winked at her and disappeared back under the console. 

 

The next day, he thrust a book on advanced physics into her hands. 

 

“What’s this?” she asked, staring at it. 

 

“Baby names. I’m not going to pretend that we’ll call him something Gallifreyan, so let’s compromise.”

 

She lifted her stare to him. “By calling him what? Electron?”

 

“Well. Something better than that, I’d hope. See what you can come up with.”

 

Rose continued to stare at him. “ _What_?”

 

“Well, you wanted to pick his name out of a book! There you are!”

 

She rolled her eyes. 

 

But the truth was she was hardly able to move anymore, and if he was only going to give her a physics book she was stuck with it. She tried to move, but it was awkward; she could do nothing more than waddle, and that very slowly. He’d stopped letting her off the TARDIS for fear they’d encounter something that would require running and she wouldn’t be able to get away quickly enough. And, inside the TARDIS, she could barely move. The baby was heavy, and she was increasingly exhausted and uncomfortable. The discomfort added to the exhaustion. She could seldom find a position that allowed her to sleep for more than snatches. Which the Doctor knew was bad for any human but especially bad for one who was trying to carry an extremely complex baby to term. He managed to track down an alien sleeping draught that he assured her would bring no harm to the CGB, which made things a bit easier on her. 

 

He thought part of the reason for Looming was because a Gallifreyan baby was so complicated to make the normal, biological way. But he thought most of the reason for Looming was because having a baby the normal, biological way was, well, _emotional_. He could think of no other word for it. But it was astonishing how much he loved the baby. Every time he listened to its double heartbeat, he fell more in love with it. He had never imagined he could love anything so much. Looming was impersonal and effortless; it happened and you barely noticed. But _this_ —this struggle for life—it changed you, undeniably, in a million different ways. 

 

And, despite how strongly he felt for the CGB—the only other Gallifreyan in existence—he knew it was nothing compared to how Rose felt for the baby inside of her. Just how little she complained evidenced that. In any other circumstances she’d be a wee bit upset at being basically confined to bed, but this she bore with something like cheerfulness. And, to be honest, he found he rather liked it, drifting through the Vortex with her, while he read aloud to the baby from the classics: _The Cat in the Hat_ and _Green Eggs and Ham_. “ _Brilliant_ man,” he told Rose, when she expressed surprise that those were the books he’d chosen when she’d asked him to read to them. 

 

“I thought you’d read, well, Gallifreyan.”

 

“Rose, he’s a little baby. He wants to hear about Sam-I-Am.”

 

“And yet you want me to name him after string theory?”

 

The Doctor cleared his throat and read, firmly, “I am Sam.”

 

By the time she had hit the ten-month point, he was secretly worried but trying not to show it. The baby was growing stronger by leaps and bounds, but he was sapping Rose’s strength. He monitored her blood pressure fearfully, grew concerned as she began napping more and more often, as the CGB began to claim as his own more and more of her nutrients.

 

He finally suggested, “Would you like to go home?”

 

“What’s that?” she asked in surprise. 

 

“I think we’re getting close. I thought you might want your mother near.” He was also worried Rose would not be in tip-top shape after the baby was born, and he was doubtful of his ability to take care of both of them on his own. 

 

“We’re getting close?” Rose’s eyes were wide, as she laid her hands over her enormous stomach. “Did you hear that, CGB? Your dad says it’s almost time for you to come out of there.”

 

“Yes, but let’s not rush it now, he could use a few more weeks.” Nevertheless he moved them out of the Vortex and into Jackie’s parlour. The prospect, however, of walking as far as she would need to in order to get out of the TARDIS and into her Earth bed was daunting, and she finally sent the Doctor out to her waiting mother. 

 

“Well?” Jackie demanded. “Where is she? Is there a baby?”

 

“There is one, just not breathing on his own yet,” said the Doctor. 

 

“And where’s Rose?”

 

“She’s a bit…bed-ridden.” The Doctor shifted uncomfortably. “She sent me out here to ask if you could move onto the TARDIS until the baby’s born.”

 

Yes, mothers loved their children an unreasonable amount, he thought, because Jackie said, “Of course,” and marched past him to see Rose, and then exclaimed, “My God, you’re _enormous_. How many babies are you having?”

 

“The Doctor says just one,” Rose said, with a tired smile. 

 

The Doctor was trying to get them through the homestretch, and he was actually relieved to have Jackie around. She was helpful. She was alarmed when he set up an IV, dripping some special alien mixture into Rose to keep up her energy--but she also bit her tongue and didn’t bother him as he explained the situation to Rose. 

 

Rose, however, was quickly being drained of energy. He was now concerned she’d not be able to make it through a labour, was examining the mound of her stomach and trying to figure out if he thought he could safely perform a C-section. 

 

“When can we have the baby?” she asked, wearily. 

 

He looked at her in surprise, not having realized she was awake. “I was just trying to figure that out. I don’t know how much longer I want you to carry him,” he admitted. 

 

“Won’t he jus’ come out when he’s ready?” asked Jackie, surprised. 

 

“When he’s ready, Rose might not be,” said the Doctor, trying not to sound grim about it.

 

“But I think he’s ready,” moaned Rose. 

 

The Doctor was momentarily amused. “I’m sure you do.”

 

“No, Doctor, I think he’s…”

 

Jackie caught on. “Are you having contractions?”

 

“No. I don’t think so. The baby’s just…turning somersaults or something.”

 

Oh, how stupid of him, he thought. The baby probably _was_ ready to get out. But Rose’s body, confused by a longer-than-usual pregnancy, wasn’t helping him, and he hadn’t any idea what to do. 

 

He laughed in delight, ignoring Jackie’s glare. “Oh, Rose, you know what?”

 

“What?” she asked. 

 

“We’re having a baby.” His grin widened. “Now.”

 

“Now?” repeated Rose. 

 

“Now. Hang on.” He dashed out of the room. Long ago, the TARDIS had connected the infirmary directly to their bedroom, preparing for precisely this event. He returned a second later, arms piled high with a variety of medical devices, a few vials, a book, and a sheet. 

 

He handed the sheet to a gobsmacked Jackie and pushed her into place, adjusting her hold on it so it blocked Rose’s view of her belly. “Hold it just like that, so Rose can’t see.”

 

“What are you doing?” demanded Jackie. 

 

“C-section,” he said, briskly, brushing an alien liquid over Rose’s stomach. 

 

“C-section?” shrieked Jackie. 

 

“Got to. Time for the baby to come out, but Rose’s body is confused about it. This CGB. Her body’s got no idea what to do here. So we’re going to help it along. Can you feel this?” The Doctor poked hard at Rose’s belly. 

 

“No,” said Rose.

 

“Excellent,” said the Doctor, pleased, donning his specs, opening the book to a diagram of the human female anatomy, and studying it. 

 

Jackie gaped at him. “You need a _book_ to do this?”

 

The Doctor looked up at her. “Would you rather I did it without the book?”

 

Jackie blinked, then looked at Rose. “Let me take you to a hospital.”

 

“I’m having a baby with two hearts, Mum—”

 

“Rose—”

 

“No.” Rose’s voice was flat and firm. “Trust him. Doctor, get the baby out.”

 

The Doctor had already made the incision while they’d been arguing. “Working on it.”

 

Jackie looked over, uttered a meep of surprise at the sight of her daughter’s blood, and almost dropped the sheet. 

 

“Jackie,” he said, warningly, glancing up at her over his glasses. “Keep it steady.” He reached out, switched on one of his devices. The room was suddenly flooded with beeps. 

 

“What’s that, then?” asked Jackie. 

 

“Heartbeats,” he answered, tersely. “The baby’s and Rose’s. So far, perfect.”

 

Rose laid back on their bed and stared up at the familiar ceiling of the TARDIS. She couldn’t feel anything that the Doctor was doing, and it was a strange experience. Not at all how she’d envisioned giving birth to be. 

 

It was a bit boring, really.

 

She sighed and tried not to fidget. “How are we doing?” she asked.

 

“Almost there,” he said. 

 

She looked at her mother, who was staring at whatever he was doing with a mixture of horror and fascination. 

 

“Okay, Jackie, in a second I’m going to need you to cut the umbilical cord and then take the baby to clean him up,” said the Doctor, very matter-of-factly. “You’re going to need to drop the sheet to do it. Rose, I want you to close your eyes, do you understand me?”

 

“I want to see—”

 

“You’ll close your eyes,” he said, looking at her over the top of the sheet. 

 

She frowned, but snapped, “Fine. Yes.”

 

After a second, her mother gasped. 

 

Rose struggled to sit up in alarm. “What? What’s wrong?”

 

“Oh, Rose,” she breathed. “He’s _beautiful_.”

 

She scrambled a bit. 

 

“Stay still,” snapped the Doctor. 

 

“I want to see him. Why isn’t he crying?”

 

“Give him a second to catch his breath. He’s a bit, well, frantic at the moment.” The baby let out a loud wail on cue. “Ah. There you go. Jackie, the scissors are just there.”

 

“Can I see him?” begged Rose. 

 

“In a second,” said the Doctor. “Your mother’s going to clean him, and I’ve got to clean _you_.”

 

“I’m fine. I want to see him.” She glared at her mother, who scurried away, cooing to the small, screaming baby that was apparently her son. Since when did she obey the Doctor? 

 

“You don’t have your eyes closed,” said the Doctor, running some instrument that sounded like the sonic screwdriver.

 

“Are you sonic screwdrivering my abdomen closed?” she demanded. 

 

“Easier than stitches, Rose,” he assured her, then stepped back, looking pleased with himself. “Well?” he said, clearly hoping for praise. “Not bad, huh? Really nothing to it. We should have another.”

 

She sighed and rolled her eyes, leaning her head back and listening to the baby scream in the other room. And then, abruptly, she smiled. “That’s our son,” she said, amazed. 

 

He smiled back at her, leaned over her on the bed. “You,” he said, and his grin widened, “did a _beautiful_ job.”

 

“As good a job as you?”

 

“Better,” he said. “And we both know I never say that.” He leaned down and kissed her. 

 

She pushed him away after a second. “He’s okay, though? He’s not…hurt, or anything?”

 

“He’s perfect.”

 

“Can’t you…let him know it’s okay? To stop him crying?”

 

“I could. But he wants you.”

 

“Does he?”

 

“He’s missing your heartbeat. Can you think how abrupt it must be to suddenly be without your mother’s heartbeat? You get used to it, of course. But those first moments without it? They must be terrifying.”

 

Rose’s eyes widened. Did he think that was making her feel better? “Mum?” she called. “Let me see the baby.”

 

“He’ll be fine, Rose.”

 

“You just told me he’s terrified.”

 

“Oh, wellllll, I just meant—”

 

But he didn’t finish what he meant, because Jackie came back with the baby, wrapped in one of the blue blankets that the TARDIS kept supplying. “He’s strong,” she remarked, as she walked over. “I think he’s already got quite the left hook.”

 

Rose winced a bit as she sat up—the numbness, whatever the Doctor had used, must be wearing off—but she reached for the baby eagerly. He was a large baby for a newborn, but still ridiculously small. His skin was red with the exertion of his energetic sobs, and the features of his tiny face were scrunched up with his displeasure. She took him and snuggled him against her in delight, and, as she rested him against her heart, the baby quieted, his cries subsiding. His face relaxed into features, a pursed, thoughtful mouth, and a button of a nose, and a pair of wide eyes that gazed up at her and were…dark. 

 

“He doesn’t have blue eyes,” she said, in surprise. 

 

“Well, why should he?” asked the Doctor. “Neither one of us does. Currently,” he added, as an afterthought. 

 

“Yeah, but…most babies have blue eyes.” Her baby’s eyes were a very, very deep brown. They were his father’s eyes, no doubt about it. And they already looked like he knew more than she did. 

 

“Most _human_ babies,” he said, impatiently. “He isn’t human. He’s a CGB, remember?”

 

“What are you going to call him?” asked Jackie. “You can’t go on calling him that.”

 

“We’re going to call him Brem,” said Rose, looking down at her baby adoringly. 

 

Jackie wrinkled her nose. “Brem? That some sort of alien name?”

 

“No, we’re not calling him Brem,” corrected the Doctor. “His name is Bremsstrahlung. And it’s English. It’s a type of electro-magnetic radiation.”

 

“You’re naming my grandson after radiation?” Jackie demanded. 

 

“Bremsstrahlung Jack Tyler,” said Rose. She’d fought for the Jack, and she’d finally won. “But we’re calling him Brem.”

 

“Bremsstrahlung,” said the Doctor. 

 

Rose ran her hand over the baby’s hair. It was dark brown, thick, and already so long it could do with a trim. She looked at the Doctor, nose wrinkling with delight. “You’re going to need to share your gel.”

 

“Cheeky,” he said, but he kissed her temple as he perched on the bed next to her, looking more content than Jackie had ever seen him. The two of them looked so caught up in each other—in what was very clearly their family now—that she didn’t even bother to tell them she was leaving before she slipped out of the room. 

 

“He looks just like you,” said Rose. “You may as well have cloned yourself.”

 

“Welllll, he has your…You’re right. He looks just like me.”

 

The Doctor had leaned over to study the baby’s features. Brem caught sight of him and shifted his attention to him. Father and son regarded each other with the same curious expression, as if they didn’t quite know how to comprehend the situation in which they suddenly found themselves. Rose wondered how much Time Lord communication was going on under the surface. 

 

The Doctor reached out, finally, tentatively, and traced a finger over the baby’s small hand. Brem latched onto the finger firmly. The Doctor looked astonished, the way he had looked when they had stood directly below the black hole on the impossible planet. Rose thought she might cry for him. 

 

“D’you want to hold him?”

 

He shook his head. “No. He’s hungry. See?” Brem squirmed against her breast, sensing that food lay there. “Feed him.”

 

“Can I? Seeing as he’s a CGB?”

 

“It won’t bother him. We’ll have to supplement his diet, but it won’t cause him any trouble.”

 

Rose shifted, unbuttoning her shirt and pushing aside her bra to give Brem access. He got the hang of it quickly, suckling energetically. 

 

“A ton of energy, this son of yours,” she said, once again brushing at the baby’s impossibly profuse hair. 

 

“He’s yours, too, you know. Look.” The Doctor picked up the pendant from her neck, showed it to her. 

 

It was bright yellow. 

 

She looked up from the nursing baby to the Doctor. “Are you happy?”

 

“I am. But that’s not me. That’s him.”

 

She looked back down at Brem, still suckling and still regarding his parents, fighting the droop to his eyelids now. “He’s that happy?”

 

“Of course he is. He’s the most beloved little boy in the universe.”

 

It was the first time he’d ever said anything about loving anything, and her heart stopped for a second, as he leaned over and placed the most delicate kiss on the top of Brem’s head. 

 

She swallowed, trying to get her emotions in check and not turn into a blubbering idiot. “D’you hear that, Brem?” she asked. “You’re the most special little boy in the universe. In several universes. What do you think about that?”

 

“Do you know what you call the mother of the most special little boy in several universes?”

 

“What?”

 

“The most amazing creature in creation,” he said.

_[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) _   



	5. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (6/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (6/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)       
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, Jackie, OC  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem. He's all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – Another front-loaded posting week. Sorry for that. Need to organize my schedule better.

The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)     , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)     , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

[](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)     remains my excellent beta. You know why she's so excellent? Because she knows _everything_ about _everything_. Also thanks to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)    , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html)

  


  
_Chapter Six_

  
Brem Tyler’s first few days of life were decidedly uneventful. His mother was sore and couldn’t move much.

 

“Recuperating,” the Doctor told Rose, over enunciating the word with relish. 

 

“Yeah,” shot back her mother. “From that…paint-by-numbers surgery he gave you.” She gestured with the hand that wasn’t cradling Brem to her shoulder. 

 

The Doctor glared. “Recuperating,” he reiterated. “Give it a couple of days.”

 

But it was hard for Rose, who just wanted to spend time with Brem and found herself dragged down by her own exhaustion. It wasn’t that Brem was demanding, although he was uncompromising once he set his mind on something. 

 

“Stubborn,” said Jackie. 

 

“He must get that from you,” the Doctor and Rose told each other in unison, and then, still speaking in sync, “You think _I’m_ the stubborn one?” 

 

Brem was stubborn and uncompromising and an amazingly alert child who seemed to take in everything going on around him with a laid-back amusement. By the time he was five days old, he was laughing at the silliness of the adults around him. 

 

“But that’s impossible,” sputtered Jackie. “How can he be _laughing_ already?”

 

“He’s Gallifreyan,” said the Doctor, frowning. 

 

And the most obvious evidence of his complicated Gallifreyan nature was the fact that he never slept. An hour a day was a great deal of sleep for Brem. 

 

“Why does he _sleep_ so much?” complained the Doctor. 

 

“Sleep so _much_?” repeated Jackie, in disbelief. “He never sleeps at all.”

 

“He sleeps a lot for a Gallifreyan,” grumbled the Doctor. 

 

“Well, he’s a Gallifreyan _baby_ ,” Rose pointed out. “Babies sleep.”

 

After a week, Rose was basically back to normal, but trying to keep up with Brem remained impossible. 

 

“It doesn’t matter,” said the Doctor. “He’s no trouble while you’re sleeping.”

 

“But what do you _do_ with him?” asked Rose, curiously. 

 

“The same thing we do while you’re awake,” answered the Doctor, frowning as he poured a cup of hot tea over ice cubes in an attempt to cool it down. 

 

“Would you stop it?” sighed Rose. “I don’t think you’re supposed to give infants iced tea.”

 

“He’s doing what now?” asked Jackie, entering the kitchen. Rose marvelled at the fact that her mother now wandered all through the TARDIS as if it were the most normal thing. 

 

“Brem wants to try it,” said the Doctor. He had stopped insisting their son be called Bremsstrahlung after the first day when, in a rare moment of accord, he agreed with Jackie that the name was too long for such a small child. 

 

Brem was indeed watching his father raptly, from his position snuggled in his mother’s arms. 

 

“You can’t give him iced tea!” exclaimed Jackie. “He’s barely two weeks old!”

 

Brem turned his dark eyes on his grandmother, giving every impression of knowing full well that she was trying to deny him his iced tea. 

 

“Jackie,” said the Doctor, as patiently as he could, pouring the iced tea into a bottle. “Tea is good for Gallifreyans. Super-heated infusion of free radicals and tannin. Remember? Brem and I have been trying to find how he takes his tea for a week now.”

 

“This is what you do when I’m sleeping?” Rose asked, as the Doctor handed her the bottle. 

 

The Doctor shrugged. 

 

“You’re not going to give him tea?” said her mother. 

 

“Why not? It hasn’t been hurting him so far.” Rose offered Brem the bottle, and his tiny mouth sucked on it eagerly. She glanced down at her pendant, pulsing bright yellow. “Look at that, he likes it.”

 

“Good. Ten sugars,” said the Doctor to Brem. “That’s how you like your tea, young man.”

 

“ _How_ many sugars?” said Rose. 

 

The Doctor looked at her. “Is that a lot?”

 

“What difference does it make?” drawled Jackie. “He doesn’t sleep as it is.”

 

“Good point. C’mere, Brem.” The Doctor reached for him. “He’s probably due for a changing.”

 

Or he was trying to scurry away from Jackie. Old habits died hard, Rose thought as she relinquished the baby. 

 

“We can have a normal cuppa,” she said, turning to her mother with a smile. “No ten sugars for us.”

 

Jackie sat at the table as Rose filled the kettle--and then asked, abruptly, “How long will you be stayin’, then?”

 

Rose watched her hands as they put the kettle on, focusing on the ritual of the action, before turning back to her mother. “I don’t know,” she answered, honestly. “He hasn’t mentioned leaving yet. But it’s only been a couple of weeks.”

 

“You’ve been here months.”

 

“I mean, a couple of weeks since Brem was born.”

 

“I didn’t think he stayed in one place this long.”

 

“He doesn’t. Brem’s a special exception.”

 

“But you’ll never settle down, you two. He’ll want to leave again, and you’ll pack up and—”

 

“He’s the only other Time Lord in existence, Mum. We can’t raise him like he’s a normal little boy. He needs to see black holes and supernovas. He won’t be happy without it. Neither will the Doctor. And I’d rather not have to live with two miserable males. But, we’ll stay here. For as long as we can. And we’ll come back to visit constantly.”

 

Jackie stared at the sugar bowl the Doctor had left on the table. “When you told me you were pregnant, I thought it was this horrible mistake.”

 

“Mum—” said Rose, not wanting to hear this. 

 

Jackie ploughed forward. “I thought, Have a baby with _him_? Is she mad?” Jackie looked up suddenly. “I was wrong, sweetheart.”

 

Rose, suddenly feeling in danger of crying, pushed away from the counter and went to sit across from her mother, taking her hand and squeezing it. 

 

“Your baby’s beautiful,” continued Jackie. “And he’s so…He does mad things, and God knows I could never live with him. But you could never accuse him of not loving that child. And I’ve never seen either one of you look happier.” Jackie swallowed. “You were right to have a baby with him, Rose. He was the right one for you. He _is_ the right one.”

 

“Yeah,” agreed Rose, sniffling a bit, as the Doctor walked back into the kitchen with Brem. 

 

“Rose,” said the Doctor, “d’you think we could give Brem some more iced tea? He wants some.”

 

Rose looked at her mother and grinned. “Yeah, he is.”

 

**********************

 

Whenever she awoke and went in search of the Doctor and Brem, there was any number of activities she could find them engaged in. Sometimes they would be watching DVDs. Once she walked in on them watching _Star Wars_ , the Doctor murmuring to the tiny baby in his arms, “Someday, when I bring you to Tatooine…” But _The Muppet Movie_ , the Doctor pronounced, was a particular favourite of Brem’s. “Good taste, this little boy,” he said, and winked at Brem, who giggled in that way he had. 

 

Rose didn’t know much about the Doctor’s childhood, but she knew it wasn’t like this, showered with adoration and attention. She liked to think that Brem’s nearly constant laughter was how the Doctor would have turned out had his life been a bit less traumatic. Certainly, the Doctor seemed to have settled into steady giddiness himself. 

 

Sometimes she found them in the control room, the Doctor fiddling while Brem swung in the swing the TARDIS had placed next to the captain’s chair (Rose noticed that the Doctor did not complain about nurturing with that instalment). The Doctor would be playing music for him--the eclectic music he preferred himself--or else giving him lectures about how to repair the TARDIS. When Rose came upon them in the middle of a lecture, Brem gave her long-suffering, beseeching looks that always made her grin and cuddle him and reward him with that heavily sugared iced tea he so adored. “He looks just like you when you get cornered by my mum,” Rose told him, and the Doctor ruffled his hair in indignation that his TARDIS soliloquies should be compared to Jackie’s screechings. 

 

Sometimes she found them in the library, the Doctor reading any number of tomes, from _Pat the Bunny_ to heavy volumes in alien languages. The TARDIS always translated these books for her but she knew they were foreign. She never saw him choose one of the books in Gallifreyan, which the TARDIS never did translate for her, and she wondered if he was avoiding anything as sad as Gallifrey during this magical golden time. 

 

Wherever she happened to find them, she always took a moment before making her presence known, a moment to just watch him with the baby. Once, she came upon them doing nothing, just the Doctor sitting in the rocking chair in the baby’s nursery and staring down at Brem, his gaze intent with amazement, like he still hadn’t quite figured the little creature out, and Brem returning the stare patiently, as if he was aware his father needed time to process him. As she watched, the Doctor leaned down and nuzzled against him. Despite the fact that he was clearly adoring, she had never really seen him so physically affectionate with the baby, and she felt suddenly like she was intruding. She withdrew from the door of the nursery and waited a moment, taking a deep breath, before poking her head in and saying, cheerfully, “Good morning.”

 

The Doctor was no longer nuzzling the baby, had returned to staring at him, and he looked up at her, his gaze a bit fuzzy, still turned inward. “Rose,” he said. 

 

“I’m going to make breakfast,” she told him, jovially. 

 

“Yes,” he agreed, slowly, looking back down at Brem. “Come here for a second.”

 

She walked over to him, confused. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

 

“Look at him.”

 

She looked at Brem, who looked serenely back up at them. He was not a baby who enjoyed pacifiers, and spat it out in obvious disgust whenever she’d tried to persuade him to suck on one. He was plainly content with things just as they were and saw no need to distract himself with the artificial device. Although he was attached to the blue blanket he’d been wrapped in directly after his birth, and would sob quite roundly for it if he woke in his cradle and didn’t find it near. 

 

Rose wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be seeing. “He’s perfect,” she said. 

 

“He is,” the Doctor agreed, “but that’s not what… _Look_ at him.”

 

“I am,” Rose assured him, bewildered. She looked at his manic hair, which never looked like it _wasn’t_ in need of a trim, even when it had been freshly trimmed. She looked at his skin, which was a rosy pink, relatively unfreckled, the only piece of him that did not mirror his father. Oh, sure, the Doctor and her mum both insisted Brem had Rose’s nose, but she knew that was people said when your baby looked nothing like you. _Nonsense, he has your nose!_ Who could tell whether that tiny button resembled hers? And his eyes were beginning to droop for one of his rare naps. Rose saw him sleep so seldom that she rather hoped he’d give in to the drowse, so she could see him completely relaxed. 

 

“He’s _ours_ ,” said the Doctor. 

 

“He is,” said Rose, and rested her lips in the Doctor’s hair. 

 

“We had a baby,” breathed the Doctor.

 

“Yes. About a month ago. His name is Brem. He looks just like you.”

 

“And he’s _happy_ ,” said the Doctor, still staring at his son as if he couldn’t believe it. 

 

“Of course he is.”

 

“No, you don’t understand. He’s happy all the time. Even when he’s hungry, or tired, or needs changing, he’s still _happy_. I’ve never…In my head, he…And your pendant is always, always shaded yellow. He’s _happy_.” The Doctor looked up at her suddenly. “And do you know why?”

 

Rose didn’t think she was able to speak, because her heart was suddenly too full with love for both of them. She shook her head. 

 

“It’s just because he’s _here_. He’s happy just because he’s _here_ , with _us_. He doesn’t even know that unhappiness in life is a possibility, he just knows that, in his life, it doesn’t exist. He’s here, he’s with us, and we have him so wrapped in love, Rose, that…I wish you could feel how _happy_ he is.”

 

And she understood suddenly. He was shielding himself, but he could still feel his son. And he had never _felt_ another creature so unadulteratedly happy. She wished she could feel it then, too. And she wished that happiness hadn’t been so foreign to the Doctor that the experience of it could shock him so thoroughly. 

 

The Doctor looked at Brem briefly. He was fully asleep now, breathing deeply and contentedly, his cheek lolling trustingly against his father’s suit coat. The Doctor looked back at her. “How are we going to keep him so happy?” he asked, anxiously. 

 

She blinked. “What do you mean?”

 

“Oh, Rose.” He sounded exhausted all of a sudden, scrubbed the hand that wasn’t holding Brem over his face. “The universe isn’t a happy place.”

 

“You can’t put the universe on his shoulders when he’s six weeks old, Doctor.”

 

“What if I never want to?”

 

“What do you mean?” asked Rose, quizzically, not understanding what he was talking about. 

 

The Doctor spoke in a rush. He’d clearly been thinking of this for some time. “We could stay here. We could…buy a house. Get a mortgage. Pretend we’re perfectly normal. The psychic paper would take care of everything we might need. We’ll keep Brem away from doctors. He _looks_ perfectly normal, nobody should suspect a thing. And if he’s a bit smarter than the rest of the kids, well…We’ll just…pretend. He can be this normal little boy who only worries about…football and…whatever else normal little human children like.”

 

Rose stared at him, shocked. Here it was, everything she’d ever wanted, wrapped up, in a bow. A normal life with her Doctor. Except it didn’t seem _normal_ anymore. It didn’t seem anything like a life that would be _theirs_. “You want us to…” She tried to comprehend this. 

 

“He’ll be happy, Rose. He’ll just be a happy little boy.”

 

“And what are you going to tell him when he wants to go to Mars for his birthday?”

 

“Why would he want to go to Mars for his birthday?”

 

“Because he’s complicated and Gallifreyan!” Rose pointed out. 

 

The Doctor shook his head. “But he wouldn’t know that. Even if he wanted to go to Mars, why would he ask about it? He wouldn’t know about the TARDIS, that I could take him there.”

 

Rose felt cold suddenly. “You’re not even going to tell _him_?”

 

“Tell him what?”

 

“Who he is.”

 

The Doctor’s eyes hardened suddenly. “He knows who he is. He’s Bremsstrahlung Jack Tyler, that’s who he is.”

 

“Who happens to be one of the last—”

 

“Why does he need to know that, Rose?” the Doctor argued. “What will he gain from knowing that? I’m not going to burden him with that. Not my son. He never needs to know.”

 

“ _Doctor_ ,” she said, trying to get through to him. “You can’t…What happens when he regenerates? What happens when he falls in love and has children of his own and his wife is pregnant for a year with a baby with two hearts? What happens if he ever falls at school and gets rushed to the hospital and— _Doctor_. You can’t lie to him. Can you imagine, how _un_ happy he’ll be when he finds out? And he will find out. You can’t keep a secret of this magnitude. He’ll find out. He’ll figure it out. And he won’t understand, and he’ll hate us for it—”

 

“But he’ll have been happy, Rose. He will have had years of happiness.”

 

“He will have the same years of happiness being who he is. Because he’ll be with us. And that’s what makes him happy. Just having us. And he’ll have that, no matter what.”

 

“You don’t understand,” said the Doctor. “You don’t understand what it feels like to be the _last_. To know that there’s nothing after you and if you make one mistake existence as you know it—We’ve been sitting here in London for months now. And every minute that goes by—every minute I spend here with Brem and you—I’m wondering what threads in the universe are coming undone because I’m being selfish and playing at being a family man, and the thing is, Rose, I _like_ it. This is why I didn’t want my life to get domestic, because I _like_ it. I—I _love_ it. I don’t know how I’m ever going to be able to…leave you.”

 

“You’re not going to,” she said. “You don’t have to. We’ll always be here.”

 

He shook his head. “No, don’t you see? You have to stay here with Brem. Fine, tell him he’s a Time Lord, be stubborn about it if you want to be, but you’ve got to try to get him to lead as normal a life as possible. Don’t tell him he’s the last, don’t tell him what Time Lords do, _don’t_ tell him what I do—”

 

“What the hell are you talking about?” she asked, sharply. “First of all, you’re going to tell him all that yourself. Second of all, you’ve lost your mind if you think I’m staying here with Brem.”

 

“Rose. You have to. He needs you. We can’t leave him here without you.”

 

“We’re not leaving him anywhere. You’re talking nonsense.”

 

“I could do it, you know. I could stay here on Earth, with you and with Brem.”

 

“You could never stay in one place—”

 

“I could. I’ve done it before. I’m doing it now. Do you know the only reason I can’t? Because I _feel_ it. Not just the turn of this planet but the turn of every planet and, Rose, there is no one out there but me who feels that anymore.”

 

“There’s Brem,” she whispered. 

 

“And that’s why he has to stay here with you,” he whispered back. 

 

“We’re not staying anywhere.” Her voice shook when she said it, with the force of her conviction. She cupped his face. “You don’t do this alone anymore. You don’t. You need to get used to that. The universe has taken enough from you. I will not let you sacrifice Brem and me as well.”

 

“That’s what I’m trying not to do,” he protested. “I’m trying to keep you safe—”

 

“I get it, that your life is dangerous. That _our_ life is dangerous. But we’ve made it this far. And we won’t jeopardize Brem. I’ll stay here with him, while you save the universe. And then we’ll celebrate by pushing his pram down the promenade on Barcelona. The planet, not the city.”

 

The Doctor was silent for a second. “Rose—”

 

“You will not send me away again. I swear to you, I will track you down and regenerate you myself. Which would be a shame, because I rather think we made a beautiful baby and I’m not sure how beautiful the next baby would be with a new you as a father.”

 

“The next baby?” he echoed, disbelievingly. 

 

Rose kissed him, kissed him until he gave in and kissed her back. And then she rested her forehead against his. “Do you feel that?” she whispered. 

 

“What?” His eyes were closed. 

 

She combed her hands through his hair lovingly. “What you’re feeling right now. It’s happiness. Get used to it.”

 

He took a shuddering breath, lifted his free hand and brushed it over her hair. “I…” His voice trembled. 

 

“What?”

 

Words, unspoken, shimmered between them. The Doctor cleared his throat. “He might like to visit Thhhhhhhhhhhmyr. Best sweets in the universe. And he apparently has a sweet tooth.”

 

Rose smiled. “You know what I’ve been meaning to ask you?”

 

“What?”

 

“If he only sleeps an hour a day—and only that much because he’s so little right now—when are we going to be able to make the second baby?”

 

“Well. First of all. It’s a bit too soon to be thinking about making a second baby. Or any activities that might lead to a second baby. You need to rest a bit longer.”

 

“Fine,” she agreed. “What about activities after I’m cleared for such things?”

 

“Wellllllll.” He rubbed his nose against hers. “You’re going to laugh at me when I tell you this, but it’s the truth.” He paused. “The TARDIS is a brilliant baby-sitter.”

[ _Next Chapter_ ](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html#cutid1)   
  



	6. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (7/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (7/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)          
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, Jackie, OC  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem. He's all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – Because I think I'm busy the rest of the weekend, here you go.  

The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)    , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)    , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

[](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)    , who at the moment is busy being all glamorous on a train, is my remarkable beta. Also thanks to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)   , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html)

  


  
_Chapter Seven_

In the beginning, she wouldn’t let Brem leave the TARDIS. Now that she knew how he was thinking, she was worried that the Doctor would dematerialize as soon as he could, leaving Brem behind to that happy life he thought was waiting for him. She wouldn’t even let her mother take Brem off while she stayed on, for fear the Doctor would simply whisk the both of them away and not bring them back until Brem was 30. There were some things, she thought, not even constant whining from her could convince him of. She even worried about leaving the TARDIS herself, for fear the Doctor would deposit Brem in a playpen in her mother’s flat, where she would find him in the TARDIS-less living room upon her return.

 

And then she realized that she couldn’t live their lives this way. 

 

She woke one morning to find the Doctor in bed with her, sleeping. The rarity of this was almost astonishing, like catching sight of the Loch Ness Monster (when you didn’t have the TARDIS to help you find her). She knew he slept some, but normally after they had made love, and they would both drift off to sleep together. She could not remember the last time she’d woken to him sleeping.

 

But there he was, lying on his back because Brem was sprawled on his chest, also sleeping, tucked up in his adored blue blanket. Rose smiled at the pair of them, her two Time Lords, sound asleep, and enjoyed watching them sleep until the Doctor shifted and blinked himself awake. 

 

She grinned at him. “Tired?” she asked, keeping her voice low for Brem’s sake. 

 

“Everyone was sleeping,” he said, brushing his hands over his son’s hair. “Figured I might as well take advantage of the peace and quiet.”

 

“You’re not getting sick, are you?”

 

He had been sick only once before, a strange, violent, alien cold that had made him as fussy and irritable as a small child, and had been the only time she had ever seen him sleep with any regularity. 

 

He shook his head. 

 

Reassured, she reached out and traced her finger delicately over Brem’s hands, balled into tiny fists. Brem let out a fluttering little sigh that made her smile. And then she said it. 

 

“You can go.”

 

“What?” asked the Doctor. 

 

She shifted her eyes to him. “You can go. I know it’s…bothering you, being here.”

 

“Not because—”

 

“I know.” She cut him off. She knew he didn’t want to leave for the sake of leaving. But she also knew no one felt guilt more keenly than her Doctor. “So you can go, check up on the universe, make sure it’s okay. Brem and I will wait here.” She was of the opinion that it was still too early for Brem to be skipping about through the Vortex. She knew he was a Time Lord, but she also thought he should be a bit older before his first journey. 

 

The Doctor was silent a second. Rose watched her fingers continue tracing over Brem’s fist. 

 

“You’re sure?” said the Doctor, finally. 

 

She looked back at him. “Yes. I trust you,” she told him, firmly. 

 

He shifted, as much as he could without disturbing Brem, and cupped her cheek. 

 

“You will come back,” she said. “And not twelve months from now, either.”

He looked down at Brem. “I will. I’ll be back before you have time to register I’m gone.”

 

“And you’ll call me—us—on the SuperPhone all the time.”

 

“Yes.” He sent her a lopsided smile. “I’ll miss you. It’s been a while since I travelled…on my own.” It was amazing for him to say. He had spent so much time travelling on his own. When had he gotten so used to Rose’s company?

 

“I’ll miss you,” she replied. “My mum’ll have us visiting all her friends, showing Brem off.”

 

“Welllllll, he should be shown off.”

 

“We’ll have to do the visiting again when you get back.”

 

“Oh, not on my account,” he drawled. “I’m quite alright with missing it.”

 

She grinned at him. “Yeah, but I’d like to show you off, too.”

 

“Welllllll, yes, I can see that. That’s where Brem gets it from, you know, his show-off-ability: Me.”

 

Rose laughed, shifting to rub her nose against his. “You are show-off-y,” she agreed. 

 

“Not show-off-y,” he argued. “Show-off-able. Huge difference, Rose.” He strained his head up to try to capture her lips in a kiss. 

 

She allowed him the merest brush before drawing back. “Why don’t you,” she murmured, leaning forward a whisper to kiss him ever so lightly, “show off—” she kissed him a bit harder—”what a good kisser you are?”

“Oh, with pleasure,” he said against her lips, as she parted them for him and he swept his tongue inside, his hand holding her head in place. 

 

She was positioned awkwardly, so as not to disturb Brem, and it still didn’t work because Brem had apparently woken, and let out a short, offended cry at finding himself not to be the centre of attention. 

 

“Just a second, Brem,” she said, against the Doctor. “I’m trying to get your father to snog me senseless.”

 

The Doctor’s lips curved into a smile she felt, as Brem let out another offended squeal. And then the Doctor moved, so quickly she couldn’t guess his intention, juggling both of them until the three of them were curled into a cohesive whole on the bed. Rose stretched like a contented cat and settled into his warmth as Brem, pleased to once again be The Most Important Thing in the Universe, blessed her with that smile that looked just like his father’s. 

 

“We spoil him,” she noted. 

 

“Oh, no doubt,” said the Doctor, carelessly, adjusting the blankets around them in a gesture that surprised her. 

 

“You’re sure you feel well?” she asked again, looking at him as well as she could in their current cuddle positions. 

 

“I’m fine, I just…Let’s just spend a little while doing nothing. Is that alright?”

It was _very_ unlike him. “You are coming back,” she said, shakily. 

 

“Oh, absolutely.” He kissed behind her ear. “Absolutely.”

She curled into him, holding Brem to her, and breathed him in. If he wasn’t, she thought, then she wanted to enjoy this moment he was giving her. Brem squirmed against her, protesting being held so tightly, and she loosened her grip on him and tried to gather herself. “Let’s play peek-a-boo with Brem,” she said, grabbing the corner of the blanket. 

 

“Brem doesn’t want to play peek-a-boo.”

 

“Sure he does.” Rose raised the blanket in front of the baby’s face then pulled it away, exclaiming, “Peek-a-boo!” in an exaggerated voice. 

 

Brem, after a moment of wearing a shocked expression, broke into gales of delighted laughter and kicked his little feet with glee. Rose, charmed by the reaction, repeated  the game. Brem laughed even harder the second time.

 

The Doctor sighed. “How can he think that’s funny?”

 

“Because he’s a baby,” she said, and shifted to grab the blanket to cover the Doctor’s face. “Peek-a-boo!” she cooed at Brem, dropping the blanket. 

 

Brem giggled as if his father playing peek-a-boo was the funniest thing in the universe. 

 

“Look, he loves it,” said Rose, repeating the hiding away of the Doctor. 

 

“How can he love it? It’s the silliest…” The Doctor sighed in exasperation as the blanket appeared in front of his face again, then dropped to the accompaniment of Rose’s “Peek-a-boo!” Brem was by now laughing so hard that he was practically rolling about.

 

The Doctor knew defeat when he saw it. He batted the blanket away, as Rose threatened to obscure him again, and lifted it instead in front of Rose’s face, holding it for a moment longer than Rose had been holding it. Brem’s eyes widened in sudden alarm, and the Doctor dropped the blanket, and said, and feeling strangely not foolish as he said it, “Peek-a-boo!”

 

Brem blinked at his mother’s grinning face, and then burst into more laughter, looking back at his dad, as if to say, _Oh, that was a good one_. 

 

Jackie found them, still curled up in the bed together, an hour later, collapsed into gales of laughter. 

 

“What’s so funny?” she asked, pulled into a smile herself without knowing why. 

 

“Watch,” said Rose, ducking exaggeratedly under the blanket and then popping up with a comical, “Peek-a-boo!”

 

Both Brem and the Doctor dissolved into fits. Jackie raised her eyebrows. She would have expected Brem to react that way, but the Doctor? _Who was she kidding?_ she thought. The Doctor’s reactions to things were always impossible to predict. 

 

“Brem’s a humorist of the top order,” gasped the Doctor. “Who knew how _hilarious_ peek-a-boo is?”

 

“It’s very funny,” Rose told her, gravely, a twinkle in her eye. 

 

Brem made a few half-hearted cries, to win himself another peek-a-boo. 

 

“Look,” said the Doctor, suddenly tossing Brem’s blue blanket at Jackie. “Watch Grandma.”

 

It was the first time he had ever called her that, and it stopped her in her tracks, as she blinked at him. Rose turned to stare at him as well. 

 

“Well, go on,” said the Doctor, as Brem mewled impatiently. “There’s nothing to it, you just lift the blanket over your face, honestly, Jackie…”

 

Jackie recovered. “I know how to play peek-a-boo,” she assured him, affronted, and disappeared behind the blanket before popping out with a “Peek-a-boo!”

 

Brem rewarded her with a giggle. 

 

“Now if only we could make that disappearance permanent, eh, Brem?” said the Doctor, but he said it good-naturedly, eyes sparkling with humour. 

 

“Oi,” said Jackie, matching his tone and coming to perch on the edge of their bed. “You’d better not inherit your father’s cheek,” she told the baby. 

 

“Or your grandmother’s cooking skills,” said the Doctor. 

 

“See what I’m saying, Brem?” she asked, and Rose watched them and listened to them and thought that this, more than the day she’d found out she was pregnant, more than the day Brem had been born, felt like the first day of the rest of her life, like they’d finally turned a corner. The Doctor looked up at her from where Jackie was now tickling Brem, and winked. 

 

And Rose smiled. 

 

He’d come back. 

 

**********************

 

Since being back on Earth, Rose had managed to get on a pretty standard sleeping schedule, but she woke very early the following morning to the baby crying. This was unusual enough that her stomach clenched with fear. Brem was not much of a crier. If he was crying, something was probably wrong, with either him or the Doctor. 

 

She ran to the control room, not bothering to grab her robe, breathless with worry. 

 

Brem was swinging in his swing, crying energetically. When he caught sight of her, he cried even harder and beat his tiny fists furiously. The Doctor was stuffing things into two small knapsacks, in a pell-mell, manic fashion that frightened her. 

 

“What’s the matter with him?” she exclaimed, rushing to Brem to pick him up. 

 

Brem curled into her and wailed heartbrokenly. 

 

“Did he wake you?” asked the Doctor, distracted, running his hands through his hair and then aiming the sonic screwdriver. “Sorry. There’s nothing really wrong with him, I’ve just been paying attention to something else for a change. He doesn’t like that.”

 

Brem, apparently taking offense to this description, wailed even louder. Rose looked at him in bewilderment. “Shhh,” she said, kissing his tear-streaked cheeks. “Shhh. You’re fine, Brem. It’s okay.” She looked back up at the Doctor. The baby was hiccupping now, burrowing into her. She wasn’t sure, actually, that Brem was spoiled when he cried to be held. There was something about the action that reminded her of how much this Doctor craved physical contact, was always anxious for a hug or a hand-holding. “What are you doing?” she asked the Doctor. 

 

He didn’t look up. “I’m leaving. Today.”

 

Her breath stalled in her lungs. Brem, who had been growing quiet, gave another cry, and she was convinced again that he knew everything that was going on. She soothed him automatically, even as she stared at the Doctor. “What?”

“I’m leaving.” 

 

“But—”

 

“Here.” He stood, handed her the two knapsacks. “You’re not dressed.”

 

“No, I—” She gaped at him, juggling baby and knapsacks. “What are you talking about?”

 

“Rose, if I don’t leave now, like this, I’m going to end up doing it under far more traumatic circumstances. So. Here. Bags for you and Brem. Don’t worry, they’re bigger on the inside. It should be everything he needs. Except for…” The Doctor walked over to the swing, retrieved Brem’s blanket and settled it around him. 

 

Brem stared up at him with accusatory eyes. 

 

“I’m sorry, Brem,” he said, softening, and wiping at the baby’s tears with the corner of the soft, blue blanket. 

 

“You can’t leave like this,” Rose protested, feeling dazed. 

 

“Don’t ask me not to go,” he said. “Because I won’t. And that wouldn’t…Don’t ask me not to go.”

 

They gazed at each other seriously for a moment. Then she swallowed and accepted it. “Okay. I rather don’t like you packing for us, though. You’re, er…” She tried to put it as delicately as possible. “Not very practical. Sometimes,” she amended, hastily, when he looked a bit offended. 

 

“You’ll be fine. Anything you don’t need, you can buy.”

 

She arched an eyebrow. “With what money?”

 

“Here.” He reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out the sonic screwdriver. “Take this.”

 

Her eyes widened. “Are you mad? Absolutely not! You’re going to need that! You’ll get yourself regenerated without that!”

 

He shook his head, pulled another sonic screwdriver out. “That’s not mine. It’s his.” He nodded toward Brem. 

 

“His?” repeated Rose. 

 

“I made it for him. I know he’s too young to use it, so I’ve just kind of been keeping it for him. But. The setting it’s on right now. Take it to a cash point, it’ll get you as much cash as you need.”

 

“It doesn’t seem legal,” said Rose, suspiciously. 

 

“Consider it payment for saving the bloody planet several dozen times.”

 

“Fair enough,” allowed Rose, accepting the sonic screwdriver. 

 

“Okay. So. Off we go, then. Allons-y.”

 

“I’m not even dressed!” Rose protested. 

 

“You’ve clothes in the knapsack there.”

 

“Yeah, and plenty of clothes back in the wardrobe, too. Just give me a second to—”

 

“Rose, you’ve got to go,” he begged. “Every moment you stand there is another moment I’m given to convince myself to just stay here. Please go. Please?”

 

She sighed. “This is madness.”

 

“I know.” He tugged her off the TARDIS, then stood for a moment uncertainly. “Quite something you’ve signed up for here.” He tugged at his earlobe. 

 

“And I would not trade it for the world,” she assured him, and leaned up to kiss him. “I need my mobile.”

 

“Packed.”

 

“Hang on.” She thrust Brem at him, now snuffling softly to himself, and searched through the knapsacks. They were _much_ bigger on the inside, and it took forever for her to locate her mobile and its charger. “I’m calling you,” she warned him. 

 

“Of course.”

 

“And you’re calling us.”

 

“Absolutely.” He lifted Brem to rest his head against his shoulder and murmured into his ear in a language that sounded foreign. Rose frowned briefly, wondering what language the TARDIS would refuse to translate, and then realized abruptly that it must be Gallifreyan. The Doctor kissed Brem’s tousled hair, then handed him across to Rose and stuck his hands in his trousers. “Wellllllll,” he said. 

 

She waited for him to continue, but he stayed silent. 

 

She stepped forward and adjusted his tie needlessly. “Be safe. Come back to me in this body, yeah?”

 

 “Yeah,” he said, taking a deep breath. He gave her an almost chaste kiss on her forehead then smoothed his hand over her hair. “You are…very beautiful,” he said. 

 

“Thanks,” she replied, with a smile. 

 

He winked as he stepped onto the TARDIS and closed the door. 

 

Rose, holding Brem and her two knapsacks, watched as the TARDIS de-materialized. Brem stared, eyes wide with amazement. As the noise faded, her mother came rushing into the room and gaped at the two of them. 

 

“What happened?” she asked. “Did you quarrel?”

 

Rose shook her head. “No, he—”

 

Brem burst into sobs suddenly. Loud, wracking sobs. He squirmed, inconsolable. “Shh,” said Rose. “Shh. It’s alright, Brem. Can you make him some iced tea?” she asked her mother. 

 

“Yeah.” Jackie looked disapproving. “I think we could all use a cuppa.” She disappeared into the kitchen. 

 

Rose sighed, guessing that she was in for a talking-to. “You’d think I’d be done getting yelled at by my mum now that I’m a mum myself,” she said to Brem. 

 

Brem cried, apparently not interested in the irony of that. 

 

“Alright,” she breathed, nuzzling at his cheek. “Alright. It’ll be okay, Brem. We’ll have a cuppa, and he’ll be back before you know it.”

 

Brem wailed, clearly frustrated at his mother’s lack of comprehension at the enormity of the issues he was having. 

 

“Have you got a bottle for him?” asked Jackie, appearing back in the living room. 

 

“Somewhere in one of those bags.” Rose pointed with her chin, as she walked Brem, bouncing him up and down. 

 

Jackie opened one and let out a short scream. 

 

“Oh,” said Rose, as an afterthought. “They’re bigger on the inside.”

 

“Bloody hell,” muttered Jackie, as she searched through them. She found the bottle just as the kettle began whistling, and disappeared back into the kitchen. 

 

Rose, after a second, followed her into the kitchen, not relishing the conversation. Brem was still crying but half-heartedly now, as if he were doing it as a matter of principle. Her mother was pouring the tea over ice, preparing it for Brem, and Rose watched her as she then shifted it to a bottle and handed it silently across to Rose. Rose offered it to Brem, who stared at her in disbelief. 

 

“C’mon, sweetheart,” she coaxed. “It’s a peace offering, huh?”

 

Brem sighed enormously, but reluctantly began sucking on the bottle with the attitude that he was doing her a favour. 

 

Rose took a deep breath and smiled at her mother. “Can we have a cuppa?”

 

“What is going on, Rose?” demanded Jackie, pouring tea into a mug. “Yesterday the two of you were as giddy as teenagers, and today he’s pushing you off the TARDIS in your pyjamas? What happened?”

 

“He didn’t—He—” Rose sugared her tea. “He had to go.”

 

“I knew it.” Jackie sat angrily in the chair opposite. “I knew he’d never be able to stay in one place.”

 

“He wants to, Mum. You don’t understand. There are things he has to do. We discussed this. He’s coming back.”

 

“Great. And how are you and I going to manage to take care of a baby that doesn’t sleep in the meantime?”

 

Brem, still slurping at his iced tea, cut his eyes over to his grandmother. 

 

“Shifts, I suppose. I’ll try to just nap a bit in the evenings, and take care of him the rest of the time.”

 

“I don’t know who he thinks he is,” grumbled Jackie. “That he can just swan in and out of being a father.”

 

“He isn’t a father first. That’s his issue. He’s never going to be a father first, and that’s not his fault. He would if he could, huh, Brem?”

 

“Well, if you ask me, it’s not half selfish of him—”

 

“Stop it,” bit out Rose, her voice dangerously quiet, and Jackie looked at her as if she’d never seen him before. “Stop it. It’s the least selfish thing he does. And I’ll not have you try to make Brem think anything different about it, do you understand me?”

 

“Rose—”

 

“He left me with a sonic screwdriver. I’ve got unlimited cash at my disposal. And I will not hesitate to go somewhere else with Brem if you can’t follow the simple rule of not insulting his dad.”

 

Jackie’s eyes flickered to the baby, who looked serene now, eyes closed as he concentrated on his iced tea. She opened her mouth. And she said, flatly, “Fine.”

 

**********************

 

Brem did not cry constantly--but he was fussy, which was decidedly unlike him. He wanted to be held all the time. Rose tried what she could to keep him calm; she played the music she thought he’d associate with the Doctor, and then didn’t know why that would make Brem feel better as it didn’t make _her_ feel better. She remembered that the lights at Christmastime emitted a low buzz that approximated the comforting hum of the TARDIS and pulled them out and plugged them in. 

 

Brem did seem to like visiting. He appeared to be endlessly fascinated by new people. The first few months of his life had been so isolated that his curiosity for the world outside the TARDIS was all-consuming. It was the only time her pendant glowed anywhere close to yellow anymore, when she and Brem went for walks. She took him, methodically, to every different area of London and watched him, overflowing with love, while he gaped at pigeons and buses and other little children. Brem had been born at the height of summer; it was now swiftly becoming fall, and he looked adorable, his thick hair hidden under a hat and his hands burdened by mittens and his cheeks flushed with the cold. 

 

He liked visiting, but he did _not_ like new people touching him or holding him or cooing over him. In fact, he didn’t like to have his mother out of his sight. He grudgingly accepted his grandmother, when forced to, but he let Rose know he didn’t much like it. Jackie said he insisted on being brought to check on his sleeping mother every few minutes, so that she began automatically bringing him into Rose’s bedroom to reassure him every time there was a commercial break. Jackie started to say something about separation anxiety, but shut up when Rose glared at her. 

 

The Doctor did call, for the first time on the second day after he’d left. Rose had been waiting for the call, sleeping with the mobile by the bed, but the Doctor finally called when she and Brem were in Trafalgar Square. She told him that, and he launched into some sort of long monologue about the history of the Square or maybe the geological features of the ground underneath it or something. She didn’t pay that much attention to his rambling, preferring just to enjoy the sound of his voice. He called again a couple of days later, just as her mother had woken her up for the overnight shift. 

 

Jackie watched her daughter’s entire face light up as she stretched out on the couch, holding Brem. “He’s fine,” Rose said, into the phone, combing at Brem’s hair. Brem was working contentedly on a bottle of iced tea, and looked about to be dozing into one of his naps. “He’s wonderful.”

 

Jackie sighed and shook her head and went to bed, but, when she woke briefly an hour later, she could hear Rose laughing in the other room, apparently still on the phone. 

 

The following morning, when they met over the kitchen table, Jackie asked, neutrally, “Is he doing well?”

 

“Yes,” replied Rose. 

 

“You should have told him about Brem.”

 

“Told him what?”

 

“That he’s cranky.”

 

“Mum, of course he’s cranky.”

 

Jackie let a moment of silence fall. “When will he be back?”

 

“He didn’t say. He hopes very soon.”

 

“I don’t know how much longer you can go on holding that baby eighteen hours a day.”

 

“As long as I need to,” said Rose, concentrating on the jam she was spreading, one-handed, over her toast. 

 

Jackie frowned, and as soon as it was her turn to watch Brem, waited for Rose to fall asleep and snuck into her bedroom. The mobile was on her nightstand, and she grabbed it and walked back out to the living room and called the last number received, a bit amused when it called up as “TARDIS.”

 

“Rose?” came the Doctor’s voice after a few rings, sounding curious. 

 

“It’s Jackie,” she corrected. 

 

The Doctor blinked in the TARDIS. “What’s wrong?” he asked, swiftly.

 

“Nothing. Everyone’s fine. But I wanted you to know.”

 

“Know?” he repeated. 

 

“Brem misses you. He’s cranky, he cries whenever he’s not being held, he’s running Rose ragged. And she won’t tell you because she doesn’t want you to feel guilty. But it’s true. I thought someone should tell you.”

 

The Doctor was silent for a second. “Is Brem there?”

 

“Yes, he’s here.” Jackie looked down at Brem, who was curled against her stomach, watching television raptly. 

 

“Let me talk to him.”

 

Jackie huffed in frustration. “He’s still only three months old, you know.”

 

“Doesn’t matter, Jackie. Let me talk to him.”

 

Shaking her head in disgust, Jackie held the phone up to Brem’s ear. Brem suddenly grew more alert. And, to Jackie’s amazement, delight flashed over his tiny face. He giggled and squirmed with happiness against her. 

 

Jackie, curious, put the phone back to her own ear. The Doctor was speaking, in a language she didn’t recognize.

 

“What are you sayin’ to him?” Jackie asked. 

 

“I’m telling him to behave himself for the two of you,” the Doctor answered, switching back to English. 

 

“Do you lot even know how to behave?”

 

“When we’re young,” drawled the Doctor, “before we’ve learned all our bad habits. Look, I’m sorry about this. It was my fault.”

 

“Too right it’s your fault,” retorted Jackie. “You should come home.”

 

“I can’t. Not right now. Soon. I promise. But for now I’ve…When we’re on the TARDIS, even when I’m shielding myself, he can still feel that I’m there. I’d forgotten that. It scared him not to feel me. That’s why he’s been…not himself. I’m not shielding myself as much, he’ll be able to feel me, he’ll be better.”

 

Jackie didn’t really understand a word of that, but she understood the sentiment. “Thanks.”

 

The Doctor hesitated. “How’s Rose?”

 

“She’s tired. And she misses you.”

 

“Yeah,” he sighed. “I know. I’ll be home as soon as I can.” 

 

And he ended the call. 

 

“Well,” Jackie said to Brem, who tipped his head as much as he could to look up at her. “At least he seems to think this place is ‘home.’”

_[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) _   



	7. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (8/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (8/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)      
 **Rating** – Adult  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, Jackie, OC  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem. He's all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)    , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)    , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

[](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)    is the world's best beta. She impresses me by thinking way harder about my story than I do, which is incredibly flattering. Also thanks to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)   , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) 

  
_Chapter Eight_

The flat was not made for prams. Rose, holding Brem in one hand, struggled to drag it up the stairs and over to the front door, talking to Brem as she went. Their London landmark that day had been the Tower of London. “You’ll have to ask your dad about that whole situation,” she was saying, as she walked them through the door. “I’m sure he’ll have met one of that lot, he’ll have some—”

 

She drew to an abrupt halt: The Doctor was sitting on the couch. His suit was blue and not brown, but otherwise he looked the same as he had when he had left her. 

 

One end of his mouth tipped up into a smile. “What should he ask me about?” he asked. 

 

“The…beheading…at…” She stopped trying to talk, ran forward and launched herself on top of him. 

 

“Oi,” he said, good-naturedly. “Watch the baby,” he admonished, even as he tipped and tilted his head to allow her to brush kisses over it. 

 

“You look _wonderful_ ,” she said. 

 

“Yeah? D’you like the new suit?”

 

“No, not really, but it doesn’t matter. I missed you.” She buried her head against his throat and snuggled into him. 

 

“Not half as much as I missed you. How long have I been gone?”

 

“Two weeks. How long was it for you?”

 

“Two weeks only? Well done, me. On a guess? Two months or so. Thereabouts. Felt like eternity. Hello, little boy.” He wriggled a bit in Rose’s embrace so he could pull Brem out of her arms and into his. “How are you?”

 

“Did you save a lot of planets?”

 

“Oooooooh,” he said, thinking. “Twenty? Or thirty? Not bad work, really.”

 

“And now you can stop worrying about it for a little while.”

 

“Yes,” he said, frowning at Brem, who was smiling at him with what was obvious affection. “Hasn’t he started talking yet?”

 

“What?” asked Rose, wrinkling her nose. “He’s barely four months old.”

 

“Yeah, but he’s…Gallifreyan. No? Nothing? No words? You’re sure?” He pointed at the TARDIS. “Tar-dis. Can you say that for me, Brem? Tar-dis.”

 

“Okay, first of all, he is half-human. Second of all, his first word shouldn’t be TARDIS.”

 

“What would you suggest it be?”

 

“Mummy. Or Daddy.”

 

“Daddy,” he repeated.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“It’s so…human.”

 

“A bit domestic,” she grinned at him, tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth. 

 

“A bit, yeah. So you really don’t like the suit? I thought I’d surprise you with it.”

 

“I’ve kind of gotten used to the brown.”

 

“Then we’ll go back to it. C’mere.” He lifted his hand to the back of her head and brought her close so he could kiss her. “I really— _really_ —missed you,” he said, around brief, mesmerizing assaults of his teeth and tongue. 

 

“Mmm,” she moaned, shifting to get a better angle at his mouth. 

 

“Where’s your mother?” he managed, around her kisses, still keeping a grip on Brem. 

 

“I dunno.” She moved off his lips, drawing a line of kisses that followed the freckles on his cheek. “Out,” she mumbled, and sucked on his earlobe.

 

He closed his eyes and gritted out, “Bloody hell. The one time I’d _like_ her to be around, and she’s not here.”

 

“I’ll call her,” said Rose, moving back to take his lower lip in her teeth. 

 

“And say what?”

 

“Come home so I can shag the Doctor.”

 

“Somehow I don’t think that’ll—” Rose nipped at the sensitive skin behind his ear, which she knew he loved, and he cut himself off with a groan. “Stop it, would you? You’re going to scandalize the baby.”

 

Rose slid away from him, dug for her mobile while she shrugged out of her coat. The Doctor noticed that Brem was bundled up as well, and began stripping layers off of him. 

 

“Is it cold outside?”

 

“You’ve no idea what month it is, do you?” asked Rose, waiting for her mother to answer her phone. 

 

He shook his head. 

 

“I could tell, as you didn’t pack us any winter clothing—Mum! Where are you?” Rose listened for a second. “Can you come home, then?…Well, now…Er, because…” The Doctor leaned forward and nibbled on the curve of her neck. Rose dropped her head back and sighed. “If you could come back _immediately_ , that would be preferable.” She felt the Doctor’s lips curve into a smile against her skin, as she hung up the phone and tossed it aside. 

 

“What did she say?” he asked, lifting his head. 

 

“She thinks I’ve gone mad, but she’s coming.”

 

He beamed. “Excellent.” The beam slowly faded. “Er, I’ll just wait for you on the TARDIS, shall I?”

 

Rose arched an eyebrow at him. “On the TARDIS?”

 

“I’d love-love-love to sit down and chat with your mother, just…not when I’ve just convinced you to get her to come home so she can watch our son while I…shag…you…”

 

“Coward,” grinned Rose. 

 

“Every time,” he rejoined, and momentarily hugged Brem to him. “You, young man. Let’s practice trying to say some words. Mummy. Daddy. TARDIS.”

 

“Leave him alone,” Rose told him, as he handed the baby to her where she was still seated on the couch. “He’s four months old.”

 

“I know! He should have started talking weeks ago!” The Doctor closed the TARDIS door behind him. 

 

“I don’t know if he’s joking or not, Brem,” mused Rose, and then glanced down at her pendant, pulsing yellow. “Happy to see him, Brem, are you?”

 

Brem tipped his head up to look at her and said, quite clearly, “Mummy. Daddy.” He pointed. “TARDIS.”

 

Rose gaped at him. Brem looked underwhelmed, like he could have done this all along but he didn’t see the point.

 

“Doctor!” she cried, and leaped up and knocked on the TARDIS door. 

 

The Doctor pulled it open. “Is your mother here already?”

 

Rose shook her head. “No. No. Watch. Who’s that?” She pointed at the Doctor and looked at Brem, eyebrows raised. 

 

Brem looked long-suffering, as he replied, obediently, “Daddy.”

 

The Doctor’s face lit up. “There you are! I told you!”

 

“Who am I?” Rose asked Brem. 

 

“Mummy,” he said. 

 

“Oh, wait ‘til my mother sees this!” exclaimed Rose, giddily. 

 

“It isn’t anything that impressive. We should be moving on to complete sentences next.”

 

Brem glared at his father. 

 

“Oh, I think it’s lovely!” cried Rose. 

 

“Rose?” came her mother’s voice as she walked in the flat, and Rose ducked out the door she’d left open. 

 

“Mum!”

 

“Oh, he’s back, is he?” asked Jackie, entering the living room and catching sight of the TARDIS. “Is that what you wanted me for?”

 

“Mum, listen! Who am I?”

 

Brem was evidently already bored with that trick. “Grandma,” he said instead, leaning toward said woman. 

 

Jackie took him automatically, eyes wide in surprise. “Did he just say…?”

 

“He’s talking!”

 

“Of course he’s talking,” said the Doctor, from the doorway. “The two of you were coddling him.”

 

“Well, at least we were here,” retorted Jackie. 

 

“Right,” said the Doctor, flatly, and disappeared into the TARDIS. 

 

Rose looked back at her mother. “Leave him alone,” she hissed, and then, “Can you watch Brem for an hour?”

 

“Sure. Why? There’s nothing wrong, is there, love?”

 

Rose shook her head. “No, just…catch up…with the Doctor…” She was struggling not to blush. 

 

“That thing better not disappear as soon as you step inside.”

 

“Oh, no,” Rose assured her, gravely. “Definitely not going anywhere.”

 

Rose slipped into the TARDIS and closed the door behind her. The Doctor was on her immediately, turning her to face him while he nibbled at her collarbone. 

 

“An hour?” he mumbled. 

 

“Mmm,” she said, catching her hands in his hair and letting her head loll back so he could nip at the column of her throat. 

 

“You’re being optimistic.” He pulled her shirt off and flung it away. “It’s been a while since I’ve done this.”

 

“I’m sure you’ll remember how pretty quickly,” she said, breathlessly, as she shoved his coat off of him. 

 

“Maybe too quickly,” he said, hands clasping him to her as he tried to whirl her out of the control room and, having forgotten all about the _controls_ in the control room, ended up backing her up against them. It would have been hard enough to knock the breath out of her if she’d had any breath in her and, truthfully, neither she nor the Doctor really noticed, because they were busy trying to outdo each other’s kisses, and she was pulling his tie off him, and he was cupping her breasts, and she dropped her head back and away from him to gulp down air. 

 

It was when she shifted that the button poked into her back and she realized that he had her stretched over the controls, while his mouth dipped toward her breasts. 

 

“Bedroom,” she managed.

 

“No, we’re in the control room,” he replied, against her skin, as he unclasped her bra.

 

“No, let’s get to the bedroom.” She slid off the controls, slowly, the friction against him making him freeze and suck in breath. She smiled knowingly at him, as she grabbed his hand. “Bedroom,” she repeated, tugging to lead him. 

 

“Oh, absolutely,” he agreed, pulling her back into a kiss as he walked her backwards. 

 

They turned in slow circles as they made equally slow progress. The Doctor paused to take her bra completely off her. Her fingers danced down the buttons of his shirt, parting the fabric. 

 

She tore her mouth briefly away from the assault of his lips. “No vest,” she gasped, flattening her hands against the quivering skin of his chest. 

 

“No, I thought I…” He decided against finishing the thought in favour of claiming her mouth again in another bruising kiss. 

 

She pushed the shirt off him, as they staggered into their bedroom. The Doctor reached for the bed and missed entirely, bringing Rose down with him in a heap on their floor. She recovered, straddling him as she went to work on his trousers. He reached for one of her hands, pulling it toward him so he could suck, one by one, on each of her fingers. 

 

Rose’s eyes closed involuntarily. “I need that hand,” she murmured, trying to work her trousers off him one-handed. 

 

“I’m using it,” he replied, swirling his tongue around her index finger. 

 

Rose swallowed a moan and managed, determinedly, to free him from his pants. The Doctor gasped around the finger he was currently torturing and dropped his head back, hips moving mindlessly against the stroke of her hand. Rose grinned then slid off him, kicking off her shoes and wriggling out of her jeans. 

 

The Doctor groaned and opened his eyes. “What are you doing?”

 

“You’re having all the fun,” she pointed out. 

 

“Well, hurry up, would you?” He was wriggling himself, doing a better job getting out of his trousers and pants than she had managed with her one hand. 

 

She kicked her knickers clear and crawled on top of him, kissing him as she slid onto him and he rocked upwards to thrust deeper into her. She was surprisingly close. It had been many months since they had made love, since before she’d given birth to Brem, and she realized how much she’d missed him, having him inside her, so close that their hearts—all three of them—pounded in tandem with each other. Panting, she arched and squirmed, adjusting their positions, and then settled into a rhythm. He let her set the pace, unusual for him, and she relished it, shifting angles and moving slowly until she pushed him to snapping. His hands grabbed at her hips, tight enough to leave a bruise, and he forced her past the point of no return. He thrust upward sharply, and she climaxed with an “oh” of surprise, as pulses of pleasure chased through her, and he climaxed so soon after her that she barely registered it, collapsing in exhaustion onto his chest. 

 

It seemed an eternity later when he mumbled, “We’re not on the bed.”

 

Rose lifted her head blearily. “You’re right. We’re not.”

 

He nudged at her, and she capitulated and pulled herself up and then onto the bed, kicking her way under the covers. He followed her, and she curled against him, pressing her nose against him. 

 

“Can I fall asleep?” she asked. 

 

“Of course you can fall asleep,” he replied, sounding surprised she’d asked the question at all. He brushed a kiss over her hair. 

 

“It’s just been a very long time since I fell asleep with you in the bed with me.”

 

“Ah, children. They are a joy.”

 

“You adore him.”

 

“I do,” he agreed, softly. 

 

“We missed you.”

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

“For what?” she asked. 

 

“Leaving you and Brem.”

 

“You had to. It’s fine.” She lifted her head. “Can you not do it again, though?”

 

“Yeah.” He smoothed a hand over her hair. “We’ll figure something out. Go to sleep.”

 

She smiled happily at him before snuggling into him. She was snoring in only a few seconds, and he thought of Jackie telling him that Brem was exhausting her. He sighed and slid carefully out of the bed. He left the blue suit, scattered throughout the TARDIS as it was, and went back to the good old brown suit, foregoing a tie for the time being, before slipping back out of the TARDIS. 

 

He could hear Jackie cooing at Brem from the kitchen, and went in that direction. Brem caught sight of him and grinned, “Daddy!”

 

So it was a somewhat silly thing to be called, very human and not at all Gallifreyan. He still couldn’t help grinning in answer, responding to the unspoken plea and sweeping the baby into his arms. 

 

Jackie gave him a hard look. “So you came back.”

 

“I was always coming back,” he replied, meeting the hard look. 

 

Jackie sighed. “She certainly thought so.”

 

“So, Brem,” said the Doctor, heartily, changing the subject, “have you been behaving yourself?”

 

Brem looked offended, and the Doctor chuckled and looked at Jackie. “Was he good?”

 

“Better, after you talked to him,” she admitted. 

 

“Good.” He was silent for a second, watching Brem watch him. Then he ventured, cautiously, without looking at her, “Can we call a truce?”

 

Jackie sighed. “Yes. We are in a truce. I’m sorry.” There was another moment of silence. “So did you have fun?”

 

“No. But I did what I was supposed to do. Listen, I really came out here to ask you if Rose and I could have another hour. She’s sleeping and I think she could use the sleep.” It didn’t explain why he couldn’t watch Brem. 

 

But Jackie didn’t press that. “Yes. You know what? This one here is a handful. You two can have the rest of the night. I’ll watch him for you. Rose can rest.”

 

The Doctor looked so delighted that she thought he might dance a jig. “You’re sure?”

 

“Yeah. Brem and me—we’ve got some TV we like to watch together, don’t we?”

 

The Doctor handed him over, brushing his hand over his hair, and looked at Jackie. “Thank you,” he said. 

 

“Yeah,” she said. 

 

The Doctor headed back to the TARDIS, crawling back into bed with Rose, who stirred. 

 

“Where were you?” she asked. 

 

“I got more time from your mother,” he replied. “So I can acquit myself properly.”

 

Rose stretched. “Really? How many times did you get slapped for that?” She grinned at him. 

 

“None at all,” he reported, proudly. 

 

“Aw, she must finally be starting to like you.”

 

“Shut up and concentrate on where my hands are,” he said. 

 

**********************

 

They took Brem on his first voyage when he was six months old. By then, he’d decided to forego crawling altogether, and was taking his first tentative steps. He looked incongruous, such a tiny baby tottering about, but he also looked adorable. He was not, however, inclined to talk much. When he did, it was in startlingly perfect complete sentences--but he seldom did. He would call their names if he wanted one of them, but he didn’t often tell them what he wanted. Indeed, he was more inclined to just want to be cuddled. He was a terribly physically affectionate baby, despite his decidedly independent nature. But he didn’t like talking.

 

It drove the Doctor mad. “ _Tell_ me,” he would beg the baby. “Tell me what this is.” And he would point to a random control on the TARDIS. And Brem would regard him steadily. _I know what that is_ , his gaze said, _but I see no reason to tell you_. 

 

“It’s the one way he’s not like you,” said Rose, good-naturedly. “Leave him alone.”

 

“What are you talking about?” sniffed the Doctor. 

 

“He doesn’t babble. That doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with him.”

 

The Doctor puffed up in indignation. “I…don’t… _babble_!” 

 

Brem was not a talker but he was a natural traveller. The Doctor took him to Thhhhhhhhhhhmyr, as he promised, and, despite Rose’s protests allowed Brem to eat far too many sweets, resulting in the baby becoming violently ill, which permitted Rose to say “I told you so.” Or rather, “I told—” before the Doctor cut her off with, “I know.”

Brem turned out to love travelling, which she would have predicted. He was delighted by every new thing his father showed him, giggling with enthusiasm, listening raptly while the Doctor babbled at him. They were, Rose had to admit, thoroughly charming together. She could watch them for hours. 

 

Rose and the Doctor managed to figure out that if his coordinates didn’t come out right, if the TARDIS resisted him, then it was a trip that she and Brem should stay home for. He was not as bad a driver as she’d always teased him for, really; it was the TARDIS tugging him toward a spot in time and space that needed him. She hated waiting while he wasout there, doing dangerous things with no one to help him, but she agreed with him that one of them had to stay home with Brem. And he was much better at saving the universe than she was. 

 

One thing that did surprise her—and took some getting used to—was the fact that the TARDIS did turn out to be a decent babysitter. They could settle Brem in the nursery, surrounded by TARDIS-provided toys (he was especially fond of the building blocks, would stack them quite intently), and the TARDIS would lock the door and keep him safe and they would steal time. 

 

The time being very important because Rose had decided she wanted another baby. When she mentioned that, the Doctor looked at Brem, eight months old now, stubborn and demanding, and thought how easily Rose had been run ragged by him—still could be if he didn’t pay attention. 

 

“Is that such a good idea?” he asked. 

 

Mistake, he saw immediately. Rose folded her arms. “Why isn’t it a good idea?”

 

“Well, I mean…” The Doctor scratched the back of his neck and gestured to Brem. “He’s a…you know.”

 

“You don’t think I could take care of Brem _and_ another baby? You think I’m doing that bad a job?”

 

“I didn’t—I didn’t say that,” he protested, stammering. “I just think—”

 

“That we shouldn’t have a baby.” She turned on her heel and marched away. 

 

The Doctor sighed and looked down at Brem, who was settled on a blanket on the floor of the control room, playing with a set of magnets the Doctor had given him in preparation for a lecture on electromagnetic fields.

 

Brem looked up at him, and remarked, “Mummy’s upset.”

 

“Oh, _now_ you decide to talk,” grumbled the Doctor. 

 

Brem looked innocent and pulled the magnets apart. 

 

“Into the nursery for you,” said the Doctor, picking him up and moving him to the nursery, where he settled Brem on the floor with his beloved blocks. “Build me some sort of Fnegrudian hut,” he told Brem. “Keep an eye on him,” he told the TARDIS, and then went off in search of Rose. 

 

He found her in their bathroom, filling the tub. “What are you doing?”

 

“Drawing a bath,” she sniffed in answer. “Where’s Brem? Can’t you keep track of just one child?”

 

“He’s in his nursery. Rose—”

 

She turned to him abruptly. “Don’t you want another baby?”

 

“I wanted another baby as soon as Brem was born, you know that.”

 

“So—”

 

“So, Rose, it was before I knew how Brem would _be_. And Brem’s lovely. He’s…an angel, really, I suppose, compared to how difficult he could be if he chose. But he’s still, well, exhausting.”

 

Rose looked away from him, testing the temperature of her bathwater. “He’s exhausting for me, you mean.”

 

“Rose…”

 

“He’s not going to get easier, Doctor. Not once he really gets to be…mobile. He’s going to be curious and he’s going to be into everything, you can see it already, and what will I do then?” She was undressing now, and he watched her, trying to figure out something to say. “Forget about it.”

 

“We can’t forget about it,” he said, watching her sink into the tub, closing her eyes with a sigh. “If you want another baby, then we—”

 

“What’s your plan? Do you want Brem to be an only child? I was an only child. And it’s lonely. I don’t want that. And it’d be especially lonely for him, you know that.”

 

“I told you, I always thought we should have another baby—”

 

She opened her eyes to look at him. “Well, when do you propose we have one?”

 

“I…don’t know…”

 

She sighed. “This is a bit domestic for you.”

 

“That isn’t the issue. I am not unhappy.”

 

“No?” She held his gaze.

 

“No.” He perched on the edge of the tub, picked up her hand. “Let’s have another baby.”

 

“Not for me.”

 

“Not for you. Not even for me. For Brem, really. Because you’re right.”

 

“You worry about me too much,” she said. 

 

“Right.” He straightened her fingers out. “Because you don’t worry about me at all.”

 

“That’s different.”

 

“How?”

 

“Because I say so.”

 

He smiled. “I see.”

 

“We’re stubborn, you and I. We can conquer two children. We could even conquer three.”

 

“Oh, now, you’re just being—”

 

“Visionary?”

 

He chuckled and kissed the top of her head. “Or something.”

[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html)   


   


	8. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (9/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (9/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)       
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, Jackie, OC  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem. He's all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)  , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)  , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

[](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)   is my way cool beta, who has also promised to drink wine with me tomorrow night. Also thanks to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/) , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through. 

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) - [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html)

 

  


  
_Chapter Nine_

 

It took a bit for her to become pregnant a second time. At least, longer than she expected, when she thought of how easily, effortlessly, accidentally, without even trying, that she had become pregnant with Brem. The Doctor said that she had to be patient, that her body was still fairly exhausted from Brem. She was not pregnant by the time they celebrated Brem’s first birthday. The Doctor complained a bit about ime being complicated and non-linear and timey-wimey and they couldn’t accurately say to the day when Brem turned one, but they went back to London and let Jackie throw a big first birthday party for her grandson, to which all of her friends came to ooh and ahh over Brem and to gawk at the Doctor. They had never met him before, and they were eager to pass judgment. 

 

The Doctor passed. He was good-looking and a doctor, in their eyes, so that was pretty much enough. Plus, his adoration of Brem was much in evidence, which went a long way to adding to their good impression of him. He was, as was his wont, impatient and patronizing to them, but they interpreted it as importance and it only made him seem more impressive. He did not take kindly to one of them criticizing him for giving the baby iced tea, though, and launched into a stern lecture about free radicals until Rose managed to distract him. 

 

Brem was, as she would have thought, contrary. Mostly because, now that he sensed that his mother would prefer for him not to be an obviously remarkable baby, he decided to make an effort to be as remarkable as possible. Where normally he seldom spoke, he now made a point of talking to everyone who cooed at him. He showed off by running around the flat, making everyone comment on how advanced he was. Rose sighed. 

 

The Doctor gave Brem his sonic screwdriver for his first birthday. Disabled, so Brem couldn’t actually use it, but Brem loved it, carrying it everywhere with him, aiming it whenever his father aimed his own. Brem adored his father. Rose knew he adored her as well, but it was different from the adoration he directed toward his father, somehow lacked the hero worship, the complete admiration. Brem followed him everywhere, clutching sonic screwdriver and blue blanket—he was still inordinately fond of his blue blanket; “What do you expect?” drawled the Doctor. “You insist on changing his clothes every day, he’s got to have _something_ constant”—studying with intense concentration everything he did. Amusingly enough, Brem pretended indifference most of the time, affected offended airs when the Doctor gathered him up and dragged him to view some phenomenon or other, but cried most fervently if Rose attempted to “rescue” him. Even more amusingly, the Doctor couldn’t seem to see through the act, and kept berating Brem for not showing himself to be suitably excited by the places he took him. 

 

It was, all in all, a surprisingly _normal_ life, if one discounted the fact that Brem was being raised in all different timelines in all different galaxies and that sometimes he was not allowed to leave the TARDIS because his father was out attempting to save the entire universe. 

 

 

Rose found out she was pregnant as Brem was approaching the anniversary of eighteen months of life and they decided to share the news with him. 

 

She sat on the floor across from him in his nursery, where he was working on a complicated mechanical sort-of puzzle. “He’s a _tinkerer_!” the Doctor had exclaimed, in delight, showering him with such toys. She watched him grasp his sonic screwdriver in one chubby hand, aim it at his contraption, and make a buzzing noise that was a fair approximation of what the screwdriver sounded like. 

 

“Your father and I are having a baby,” she told him, enthusiastically. 

 

Brem looked up from his toy. “A baby what?” he asked, sounding intrigued. 

 

Rose was a bit taken aback. “Well, a baby human.”

 

“Time Lord,” added the Doctor. “It’s a human/Time Lord hybrid.”

 

Rose looked up at him. “That sounds clinical.”

 

The Doctor looked surprised. “Does it? But it’s true.”

 

“I think,” said Brem, thoughtfully, “that we should have a baby flubbertyfigturom. Dad says they have three tongues when they’re babies, isn’t that right, Dad?”

 

“You would know about tongues,” muttered Rose. “You and your oral fixation.”

 

“What’s an oral fixation?” asked Brem, watching her raptly. 

 

“It’s not important. We’re not going to get a baby flubbertyfigturom. Dad will take you to see one, but we’re not going to get one, we’re going to get a normal little baby like you.” Rose grinned at him winningly. 

 

Brem narrowed his eyes. “We don’t need another baby like me,” he pointed out, logically. “We have me.” He turned back to his toy, clearly viewing this conversation as concluded. 

 

“Yeah, but wouldn’t you like to have a little brother or sister?” coaxed Rose. “To play with?”

 

Brem shook his head and pointed his sonic screwdriver again. 

 

The Doctor frowned. All those years of being so tired of being so _lonely_ , and here they were offering Brem a guaranteed best friend and he was turning it down. “Well, you’re getting one, and you’ll love him or her,” he said, flatly. 

 

It was a tone of voice he never used with Brem, and he felt Rose turn to stare at him as Brem lifted his head up, eyes wide and startled and mouth open in astonishment. 

 

“Your mother is having a baby,” the Doctor informed him, sternly. “You should hug her and say, ‘That’s wonderful, Mummy, how do you feel?’”

 

“He’s barely a year old,” Rose hissed at him, as Brem’s eyes welled with tears and his lower lip trembled. 

 

The Doctor felt bad. He could not handle the lower lip tremble. He shifted uncomfortably. He could not handle Brem crying under normal circumstances, to know that he caused it was far worse. 

 

“I don’t want to have a baby!” wailed Brem. 

 

“Brem, I didn’t mean—” began the Doctor, crouching and reaching for him. 

 

Brem jerked away from him and launched himself at his mother melodramatically. The Doctor dropped his hand, speechless. 

 

Rose shook her head a bit, as if to say, _It’s nothing_ , while she cuddled Brem. 

 

“Brem—”

 

“Give us a second,” said Rose, cutting him off and gesturing toward the door, while Brem sobbed and snuffled against her. 

 

The Doctor would have argued against leaving except that he didn’t like to hear Brem cry, so he left and went to the library, where he found himself a book and settled trying to read it. When Rose showed up, he pretended to be engrossed. “Did you settle him?” he asked, as indifferently as possible. 

 

“Yeah.” Rose looked at him curiously. “Where did that come from?”

 

“What?”

 

“Yelling at him.”

 

“I didn’t yell.”

 

“You were a bit sharp with him.” She sat on the couch next to him, very close to him, regarding him. “You okay?”

 

“I’m fine.”

 

“You’re happy about the baby, right?”

 

“I’m thrilled about the baby. I wish Brem were.”

 

“He’s only a baby himself. He doesn’t understand. He’s happy the way things are, why should he want to change things? Plus, he might not be able to put it into words but he’s probably worried you’ll love the new baby more.”

 

“Well, that’s ridiculous.”

 

Rose thought of being jealous of Brem when she had been pregnant with him. “Not so much.”

 

He sighed. “I didn’t mean to make him cry.”

 

She combed through the hair on the nape of his neck. “Go read him a story.”

 

“You think?”

 

“Yes.”

 

The Doctor stood, tucking the book he’d been reading against his chest as he walked down to Brem’s nursery. And when she checked on them, ten minutes later, he was sprawled on his stomach on the floor with Brem, specs on and tongue out in concentration, Brem kneeling and looking closely at his father’s fingers as they attempted to coax some toy to do something or other. And she smiled and settled her hand against her abdomen, thinking of her second human/Time Lord hybrid baby forcing its way to life. 

 

**********************

 

Brem never seemed to get used to the idea of the new baby. He kept asking why they couldn’t have a flubbertyfigturom instead. He seemed to think it was merely a matter of time before his parents acquiesced to his request. Rose tried to get him interested, letting him touch her abdomen while the baby kicked. This only appeared to alarm Brem. The Doctor tried to get him to sense the baby’s consciousness, but Brem couldn’t. That didn’t really surprise the Doctor. Brem was used to a Time Lord presence that was strong, even when shielded. He wouldn’t register the whisper touch of what turned out to be his baby sister’s consciousness. Brem was not convinced by any of it that this new baby was a good idea. 

 

He was even less convinced when his father explained that they had to stop travelling and stay with Grandma for a bit while Mum had the baby. He threw a full-blown tantrum, throwing himself on the floor and beating his fists and kicking his feet and wailing. The Doctor stared at him and rubbed the back of his neck. Jackie lifted her eyebrows at him and he admitted, “We may have spoiled him. A bit.”

 

The Doctor, second time around, had the whole birth thing down to a routine: sonic screwdriver and on-the-fly Caesarean. Even Jackie let him just get to it, occupying Brem in the adjoining nursery, although Brem just wanted to be in the other room, and asked a million questions about what his dad was working on, and the Doctor said to let him come in. 

 

“I don’t think he should—”

 

But Brem, hearing his father’s blessing, immediately escaped her grasp and raced over to him, peering closely at what his father was doing. 

 

“Oh, don’t let him watch,” Jackie complained. 

 

“Why not?” asked the Doctor. “Look, Brem, here comes your sister.”

 

“Rose,” Jackie begged. 

 

“Oh, it’s fine,” said Rose, who was once again bored by this entire process. “He’s not quite normal, Mum.”

 

“The Doctor?”

 

“Him, too.”

 

The baby squalled suddenly, her first cry on the planet, and the Doctor said, “There you are, Jackie, could you cut the cord?” and Jackie, the disagreement forgotten, moved over immediately to cradle the new baby, to clean her off. Brem tagged along behind her. 

 

The Doctor did his sonic screwdriver thing over her, as he had last time, then perched next to her on the bed, swinging his legs up even though there was barely enough room there. “Gets to be routine, that,” he said, smugly. 

 

“What’s she look like?”

 

“Wait to see her for yourself.” He nodded toward where Jackie was now emerging, the baby wrapped in pink. Brem was hopping alongside, trying to catch glimpses of her. 

 

“She’s gorgeous, Rose,” Jackie beamed, transferring the baby over. 

 

And she was. Smaller and redder than Brem had been, her features far more delicate and tiny and rather pushed together, giving her an almost fragile appearance, although she was certainly crying loud enough to wake the dead. But the features were still stubborn mirrors of the Doctor, and the hair on her head, although not as long or thick as Brem’s had been, was her father’s dark brown. Her skin was relatively free of freckles but Rose knew better than to think that would last: Brem seemed to have more freckles every day. 

 

Rose smiled at down at her, melting with adoration. She offered her pinkie, and the baby grabbed it and began to catch her breath, her dark eyes widening a bit as she calmed herself down and thought to look around her. “Your DNA,” she murmured to the Doctor, drawing her thumb along the baby’s cheek gently, “is bloody strong.”

 

“Well, of course,” he breathed, leaning over to look at her closely, an expression of wonderment on his face. 

 

Rose glanced at him. “Routine, is it?”

 

“Oh, never,” he said, and then glanced at Brem, who had scrambled up on the bed and was also examining his new sister. “What do you think of her, then, Brem?”

 

Brem looked unimpressed. He wrinkled his nose. “Has she got three tongues?”

 

“She’s got one tongue like you,” Rose told him. 

 

Brem looked down at the baby, who looked back at him steadily, with polite interest. 

 

“She’s a bit dull.” Brem sat back, satisfied with his pronouncement. “We ought to trade her for a flubbertyfigturom.”

 

“A what?” asked Jackie. 

 

The Doctor sighed in exasperation. “We aren’t going to. Look, Brem, she’s _brilliant_ , don’t you think?”

 

Brem looked thoughtful. “Well.” He brightened suddenly. “She’s a girl!”

 

“Yes,” said the Doctor, grinning a bit, thinking they’d turned a corner. 

 

“She’s for Mum to play with, then!”

 

“No, she’s for both of us to play with. All three of us to play with.”

 

Brem looked sceptical. 

 

The Doctor sighed. “Come along, then, Bremsstrahlung.” The Doctor slid off the bed, walking around to gather Brem up. “Mum’s going to feed her, and you and I are going to figure out how much sugar she takes in her iced tea.” 

 

“Can’t we gauge the metricsometer instead?” asked Brem, as they exited the room. 

 

“He could be a bit more delighted, couldn’t he?” commented Jackie.

 

“Oh,” said Rose, smiling at the baby in delight as she latched onto her breast. “He’s like his father is the problem. He’s scared of being alone. The Doctor thinks, Ooh, more babies, more splendid company in the TARDIS. But Brem thinks, Ooh, more babies, maybe everyone will forget about me. Brem’ll come ‘round, once he realizes it’s not true. She’s perfect, isn’t she, Mum?” Rose looked up, her eyes shining with tears. “Look at my two perfect children.”

 

“They are perfect,” Jackie agreed, sniffling herself. “She’s beautiful. What ridiculous name are you giving her?”

 

“Oh.” Rose smiled. “Athena. It’s fairly normal, isn’t it? Well done, me, don’t you think?”

 

“Did you convince him of that?”

 

“He was taken with it. Babbled about mythology and goddesses and such. So her name is Athena.”

 

“Athena Tyler. It’s pretty, Rose.”

 

“Athena _Rose_ Tyler,” said the Doctor, re-entering with Brem and a bottle. Brem had his own bottle, was sucking from it enthusiastically. 

 

“Oh, yes,” Rose sighed. “He keeps insisting on that.”

 

“It’s a nice name,” Jackie told him. 

 

“Oh, dear,” said the Doctor. “Maybe we ought to change it.”

 

Brem crawled onto the bed, and Rose lifted her free arm so he could curl under it. “You like that name?” she asked him, kissing his cowlicked hair. “Athena?”

 

Brem shrugged. 

 

“Are you tired?” asked Jackie, studying Rose. 

 

“I am a bit, actually,” she admitted. 

 

“Here. Let me take her. Come here, Theenie.”

 

“Her name’s Athena!” protested the Doctor, appalled. 

 

“’s a bit of a mouthful, innit?”

 

“No, it’s not a ‘mouthful!’ Not at all! It’s three syllables!”

 

Jackie rolled her eyes. “C’mon, Brem, your mum needs a bit of rest.”

 

“Leave him,” said Rose. “We’re okay.”

 

Jackie looked at her for a second, the baby warm and content in her arms, and wondered when her daughter had grown up. When had that happened? Where had the time gone?

 

“Okay,” she said. 

 

“Let’s try the iced tea.” The Doctor bounced in Jackie’s wake out of the room. “I’ve started her with five, and we’ll move up from there—”

 

Rose smiled wearily and snuggled a bit into the covers. She was sore now, and really quite exhausted. Brem was watching her with his huge Doctor eyes. 

 

“I’ve got to sleep a bit, Brem,” she told him. “D’you want to stay here and be quiet or go with your dad and grandma?”

 

He removed the bottle from his mouth. “Stay here,” he said. 

 

“Let’s take a nap, then,” she said, and, although she knew he wasn’t tired, he obediently settled against her. 

 

**********************

 

It took Brem longer than she had estimated to come around to Athena. She was an easy-going baby, who barely ever cried and did not object to being jostled when her brother crashed enthusiastically into whichever parent was holding her. She was perfectly content to lie wherever she happened to be, wide eyes drinking everything in, slight knowing smile on her face. She didn’t even cry when she was hungry, or uncomfortable, or needed something. She was astonishingly easy. In fact, her moods barely registered on Rose’s pendant, which remained swamped by Brem’s noisy emotions. 

 

And still Brem did not like her. Maybe, Rose reflected, Brem would like her better if she were more like him—brash and demanding. She suspected Brem did not understand this strangely silent little creature who did little other than gaze at him. Because Athena was not prone to crying, but neither was she prone to the giggling that punctuated Brem’s life. Brem was a loud, extroverted little boy; Athena could not have been more different. 

 

And she was keeping them in one place. Brem loved travelling. He complained and fretted and sulked and whined, begging to be taken places. The Doctor kept suggesting to Rose that he take Brem somewhere, anywhere, to silence him, but Rose was steadfast in refusing it. She didn’t want Brem being allowed to run away from Athena. She wanted him to get used to her. 

 

This was not a situation improved by the Doctor leaving to check up on the status of the universe. Brem sniffled miserably the entire time he was gone, demanding to know why he had not been allowed to go with his father. Even the Doctor had been stern about his staying behind, which had confused Brem. But both Rose and the Doctor were vague on the dangerous, universe-saving implications of their lives. If Brem—too quick and clever for his own good—suspected how much his mother worried when his father left the TARDIS on his own, he was also perceptive enough not to probe the issue. 

 

Eventually, however, Brem came to adore Athena--and it happened for the simplest of reasons, really. Because it turned out that, no matter how disdainfully he stared at this tiny, quiet baby, Athena worshiped her older brother. When he was in the room, her wide brown eyes never left him. When Rose could persuade Brem to shake a rattle at her, or play peek-a-boo with her, Athena burst into delighted smiles and threatened to overpower Rose’s pendant with her sunny yellow glow. The few times Athena fussed were when she wanted Brem. It was confusing to Rose, why Athena should be so taken with him, but it was true. So that when Athena, at the age of 15 weeks, spoke her first word, it was _Brem_. 

 

And Brem was thrilled with it. Now that Athena knew how to speak, and could shout for him, Brem seemed to find her far more interesting. He launched into long, babbling lectures that reminded Rose so strongly of the Doctor that she never knew whether she wanted to burst into tears or laughter. The Doctor, of course, didn’t think there was anything remarkable at all in Brem’s verbosity. He didn’t even think he _was_ especially verbose. 

 

“Talk a lot?” he echoed, blinking at Rose over the top of his specs, while he leaned over the console fixing something. “Brem? You think so?”

 

Rose shook her head and held up her pendant and trapped her tongue between her teeth as she grinned. “Make this pendant scarlet.”

_[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53186.html) _   



	9. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (10/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (10/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)        
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, Jackie, OCs  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem and Athena. They're all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)  , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)  , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

[](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)   continues to be the awesomest beta on the planet. Also thanks to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/) , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through. 

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) - [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) \- [Ch. 9](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html)

  


  
_Chapter Ten_

 

“Do you think the kids are lonely?” Rose curled up on the Doctor’s bare chest, listening to his heartbeats as they fell back to normal. The TARDIS hummed around them, twirling peacefully through the Vortex. In the room next door, Rose knew the children were safely locked in, watched by the TARDIS, who would raise an alert if anything out of the ordinary happened. Brem would tinker with one of the many tinker-y toys his father had bought him. Athena would watch him raptly, maybe practice a few toddling steps. Athena was developing more quickly than Brem had, by leaps and bounds. 

 

“Lonely? With each other? Why would they be lonely?”

 

“I don’t know. Don’t you think Brem needs a playmate or something? Brem’s almost four years old, and he’s never really played with any other little children. Don’t you think he should?”

 

“Why should he do that? _What_ other little children?”

 

“That’s what I mean: Do you think they’re lonely?”

 

“They aren’t lonely. Rose, there’s more—” He cut himself off abruptly. “We’re like a little family.”

 

Rose smiled and planted a kiss on his chest. “We _are_ a little family.”

 

“Don’t worry about the kids. They aren’t lonely.” He stretched. “Where do you fancy going next? Brem’s been begging for a trip to Huxxapoffx.”

 

“Brem’s always begging to go somewhere, isn’t he?” asked Rose, as the Doctor slid out from underneath her. 

 

“Wellllll.” He grinned at her as he began reassembling his suit. “He’s a bit like me, you may have noticed.”

 

“Is he? I’d missed that bulletin.”

 

He kissed the tip of her nose as he shrugged on his shirt. 

 

But the idea that Brem might be lonely nibbled away at her. If he _was_ just like his father, he’d never admit it, just cover it all up until he almost had a nervous breakdown about it. So, when they started going to planets, Rose would think up reasons to separate. When the Doctor went off to buy parts, Rose would insist on keeping Brem with her, and find a playground where the children of that planet played. After the first couple of times, Brem went with her automatically, and Rose thought she’d been right that he was lonely, because he loved getting to play with other little kids. Sure, he was a bit bossy on the playground, and it took a bit of coaching to get him to share, but he loved having playmates.

 

The Doctor didn’t ask where they were. He was usually preoccupied with whatever adventure he had managed to find for himself, and didn’t really ask what Rose and the children had gotten up to. 

 

Then they were on a planet where it began to rain. Rose had been talking to the mother of a little boy Brem had been playing with. The mother was very nice, had begun by admiring Athena and they had then settled into a conversation. When it began to rain, Rose invited her to the TARDIS for tea. 

 

So when the Doctor walked in, a little while later, rivulets of water running off his coat and his dripping hair, he called, “Rose? Did you come back here?” He didn’t get an answer, as he took the coat off and draped it over the railing, but he couldn’t imagine Rose would have stayed out in that downpour. He ruffled his hand through his wet hair, pushing it up and off his forehead, and, as he walked toward the captain’s chair, a blue creature with tentacles and three eyes leaped out at him. The Doctor staggered backward so quickly that he fell completely to the floor, spilling the parts he’d bought for the 

TARDIS in an enormous heap. 

 

Brem suddenly emerged from behind the captain’s chair. He and the blue creature fell into gales of laughter on the floor, rolling about in glee. 

 

The Doctor, grumbling “bloody hell,” gathered himself to his feet and shouted, “Rose! _Rose_!”

 

Rose emerged into the control room, clearly having hurried from somewhere. “What?” she asked, alarmed. “What’s the matter?”

 

“There is a…” The Doctor pointed. “Person who is not my child here.”

 

“Yes,” said Rose, calmly, looking at the blue creature and Brem with indulgent fondness. “That’s Muj. She’s visiting.”

 

“Visiting? _Visiting_? Rose, you can’t have people visiting the TARDIS! What do you think this is, a theme park? _Visiting_? I mean—” A larger blue creature, with tentacles and three eyes, appeared next to Rose. “Oh,” said the Doctor. 

 

“This is Kaj,” said Rose, calmly. “She’s Muj’s mother. We’re having tea, so do you think you could keep yourself occupied for a little while?”

 

“I—” stammered the Doctor. 

 

Rose turned from him, addressing Kaj. “Sorry. He can be rude.”

 

The Doctor looked at Muj and Brem, who were both looking up at him solemnly now. 

 

“Dad,” said Brem. “Can you show Muj the swimming pool? Mum wouldn’t let us go, she was scared we’d fall in, so the TARDIS hid it.”

 

“Swimming pool,” the Doctor repeated. “Sure.”

 

But later, after they’d said good-bye to Muj and Kaj, and after Rose had promised to visit them again, he turned to her, as they shut the door, and said, “Visit them again? Rose—”

 

“Guests,” she bit out. “They were our _guests_. And you were not very welcoming!”

 

“Rose, we don’t have ‘guests’ on the TARDIS. Have you lost your mind?”

 

“Why can’t we have guests?”

 

“It’s bigger on the inside!” he exclaimed. 

 

“Oh. I forgot the low profile we’re supposed to be keeping,” she drawled, turning away from him. “Come on, Brem. Theenie.” She swept the baby up from where she’d been sitting in the swing. “Time for dinner.”

 

“But, Mum, we just finished tea—” Brem protested. 

 

“ _Dinner_ ,” said Rose, and Brem was smart enough not to argue any further. 

 

The Doctor sighed and spun them off into the Vortex and then went into the kitchen, where Rose was cooking with such fierceness that both Brem and Athena were staring at her open-mouthed. 

 

“I think Brem should go to school,” she announced, without preamble. 

 

“School?” said the Doctor. 

 

“God knows he’s smart enough for it.”

 

“ _Smart_ enough for it?” echoed the Doctor. “You went to send him to school to learn how to tell colours and time and the letters in the word ‘the’?”

 

“I know that stuff, Mum,” contributed Brem, gravely. 

 

“He can read bloody Greek. _Homeric_ Greek. From the time of Homer.”

 

“He needs,” said Rose, banging pots and pans around, “social skills. So he doesn’t turn out like you.”

 

The Doctor scratched the back of his neck. “I have social skills.”

 

Rose glared at him. “Dinner,” she announced to Brem, putting a plate of something that had been charred beyond recognition in front of him.

 

“It’s—” began Brem, then caught sight of his mother’s face and began hurriedly eating whatever it was she’d prepared for him. 

 

“My food?” asked Athena. 

 

“Er,” said the Doctor, deciding he didn’t want the kids eating the concoction. “Maybe we ought to go for ice cream.”

 

“We are out of milk,” announced Rose, head in the refrigerator. 

 

“Are we?”

 

“We need—” she slammed the refrigerator door—”to get milk.” She exited the kitchen. “And we may as well visit my mum while we’re at it,” she called back. 

 

The Doctor muttered an eloquent Gallifreyan curse, then waggled his finger between Brem and Athena. “Don’t you dare repeat that.”

 

**********************

 

“So you’re fightin’, then,” said Jackie, watching as Rose mixed Athena’s iced tea. Only six sugars for Athena. “It’s like she’s on a diet,” the Doctor had said in astonishment when the baby had settled on six. 

 

“What? Who said that?”

 

“Normally the two of you are inseparable. You’ve been here two days, and I don’t think I’ve seen you in the same room together.”

 

Rose handed the bottle to Athena, who took it and than waddled out to the living room, where her brother was sonic screwdrivering the radio in an attempt to get it to play an alien station. The Doctor had allowed Brem’s screwdriver certain limited settings, all of which made Rose incredibly nervous. “We aren’t fighting.”

 

“I see.” Jackie sipped from the mug of tea she cupped in her hands. “What are you not fighting about?”

 

Rose shook her head. And then said, abruptly, “I’m raising _alien children_. On a _spaceship_ , Mum.”

 

“You just figured that out?”

 

“No, I…” Rose rubbed at her temples. She didn’t want an I-told-you-so. She rather wanted to be told that she was doing a good job, making the most out of difficult circumstances. She was raising the most powerful beings in creation; she wasn’t sure she could afford to make a mistake, and she wasn’t sure the Doctor would notice if she did. “I think Brem should go to school.”

 

“He’s barely four years old.”

 

“Mum, Brem could probably sit for a quadruple degree at Oxford if he wanted, and I’d let him. The fact that he’s young isn’t the issue. It’s just that he doesn’t have any _friends_. What happens to little boys who grow up without any friends? They go mental.”

 

“That’s totally different. Brem’s fine.”

 

“Mum,” said Brem, breathlessly, running to the kitchen doorway, “I think I set the radio on fire.”

 

Rose sighed, not even alarmed, and stood and calmly extinguished the small fire. Athena had been delighted by the fire, as she was delighted by everything Brem did. “Give me the screwdriver,” she told Brem, holding out her hand for it. 

 

“But, Mum—” he whined. 

 

“Give it. When your father stops hiding in the TARDIS, you can get it back.”

 

“But he’ll _never_ stop hiding in the TARDIS,” Brem complained, handing the screwdriver over. 

 

“I know. That’s why my plan is brilliant. More than one of your parents is a genius, you know.” She pocketed the screwdriver and walked back into the kitchen. 

 

“Maybe not school,” said her mother. “I mean, not a formal school. But maybe just, kind of, a daycare. To get him around other kids. Molly down the hall runs one, I’m sure she’d watch Brem for you.”

 

“Oh, that’s brilliant,” said Rose. “Brilliant idea.” Rose stood up and called, “Brem?”

 

“I didn’t mean _now_ ,” protested Jackie. 

 

“Now’s as good a time as any.” Brem had appeared in the doorway. “We’re going to see if Molly down the hall will let you play with the other kids she watches.”

 

Brem regarded her warily. “Daddy doesn’t want me going to school.”

 

“This isn’t school,” said Rose, impatiently. “It’s just playing.”

 

“I don’t think Daddy wants that, either.”

 

“Daddy doesn’t care,” Rose gritted out between her teeth. “We’re going.” She tried to comb his hair, although it had no effect. “Watch Athena for me, will you?” she asked her mother, taking Brem’s hand. 

 

“Brem?” asked Athena, as they walked past her. 

 

“He’ll be back soon,” Rose told her, and then ducked outside with Brem. 

 

Brem was no longer protesting. In fact, he was skipping. “How many kids will there be?”

 

“I don’t know.”

 

“Can we have them over to the TARDIS?”

 

“Absolutely not. And don’t tell anyone that you live on a spaceship. Or that your father’s an alien. Or that you are.”

 

Brem crinkled his nose. “We’re not _aliens_ , Mum, we’re Time Lords.”

 

She experienced one of those moments when she loved Brem so much she feared her heart would burst. “That’s right, sorry.” They had reached Molly’s door, and Rose knocked.

 

In a moment, Molly answered, holding a toddler to her hip. Beyond her, Rose could hear the loud voices of children at play, a television blaring. Rose smiled. “Hello, Molly.”

 

Molly looked at her for a moment, before recognizing her. “Rose, isn’t it? Rose Tyler?”

 

“Yes,” Rose affirmed. “You remember my son, Brem?” Almost all of Jackie Tyler’s acquaintances had met Brem and Athena, through birthday parties and such. 

 

“Of course.” Molly smiled at him. “Hello, Brem. Aren’t you getting big?”

 

“Actually,” said Brem, “I’m growing at a rate of—”

 

“He’s precocious,” Rose cut him off, smile plastered on her face. “Listen, I was wondering if you’d mind watching Brem for a few hours. I’d pay, of course.”

 

“Pay?” Brem sounded affronted, as if watching him were such an honour he expected people to be bidding for the privilege. 

 

Molly shrugged. “No problem. Would you like that, Brem? To stay for a few hours?”

 

She was talking down to him, and Rose watched Brem stiffen. “It’s fine,” she said, hastily, before crouching down to straighten Brem’s jumper. “Behave yourself, please,” she begged. 

 

Brem frowned at her but didn’t protest as he was led into the strange living room. 

 

And really, it wasn’t so bad. It was one huge adventure. These kids knew nothing, really. He had to tell them _everything_. Even Molly was kind of stupid, when you came right down to it. He had to tell them that the atmospheric anomaly that was causing heavy fog was actually the Yusde, and then he had to tell them that the Yusde were a barely sentient race of alien beings that hovered harmlessly for a few days soaking up nutrients in the air before moving on. He had to tell them that his name was not unusual but actually a word in their language, and then he had to tell them all about Bremsstrahlung. He had to tell them the differences between Earth cheese and Hyboniam cheese, and then he had to tell them that Hyboniam cheese was produced on Hybonia, and then he had to tell them that Hybonia was a planet in the next solar system over where they stopped frequently after leaving Grandma’s. Molly told him he had quite an imagination, at which point he told her that she must not have any at all if she couldn’t tell the difference between reality, which he was most definitely sharing, and make-believe, which he needed no part of. And then he’d noticed that Molly had this creepy statue of a faerie perched enthusiastically on a lily pad, grinning madly at all of them, and he just had to explain that his dad had said that you couldn’t really turn your back on statues, you couldn’t even _blink_ , and then, after they’d spent a little while staring at the statue, his mother suddenly appeared. 

 

“But what is it?” she asked. “What’s the matter?”

 

Nothing, thought Brem, surprised by the question. 

 

“He’s…He’s…” Molly shook her head helplessly, practically shoving Brem out the door. “He’s weird,” she said, finally, closing the door. She then opened it again. “And I’m going to have to get rid of my bloody statue, because he’s _terrified_ me.” She shut the door again.

 

“Weird?” said Brem. “ _She’s_ weird.”

 

“Oh, Brem,” Rose sighed. “Did you tell her about the Weeping Angels?”

 

“I had to, Mum. She has a statue in there.” Brem walked next to her, hand caught contentedly in hers. 

 

“Not a Weeping Angel statue.”

 

“How do you know? Have you ever seen one?”

 

So it was a good point. “I don’t think they even exist. I think your dad made them up just to scare you.” In all her travels, she’d never seen one of the creatures. 

 

“I’ll ask him.”

 

“We don’t need to tell your dad about—” Rose stopped in the middle of the sentence as she pushed into her mother’s flat, because the Doctor was leaning against the wall immediately inside the door. 

 

And he looked none too pleased. “Where’ve you two been?”

 

“I just stepped out,” Rose said, because she had. “You decided to leave the TARDIS.”

 

“At exactly the right time, imagine that,” drawled the Doctor, turning his attention to Brem. “So? Going to tell me about your day?”

 

“Dad, are the Weeping Angels real?”

 

“Of course they’re real. Did you and Mum just go for a quick stroll around the block?”

 

“No, I went to Molly’s. Mum _paid_ her to watch me.” Brem’s voice dripped his disgust. 

 

“Did she?” The Doctor kept his eyes on Brem. “And tell me how Molly’s was.”

 

“It was fun! Except that were all kind of stupid. I had to explain everything six or seven times. I felt like you,” he finished, brightly. 

 

“Welcome to your next 900 years, my boy,” muttered the Doctor. 

 

“She called me weird, though. Are we weird?”

 

The Doctor looked at Rose. 

 

Rose dropped Brem’s hand and walked into the TARDIS. 

 

“Stay with Grandma and be good,” the Doctor said to Brem, heading back into the living room. 

 

“Brem!” exclaimed Athena, as if he were a conquering hero. 

 

The Doctor stuck his head in the kitchen doorway. “Can you watch the kids for a tick?” he asked, pleasantly. 

 

Jackie rolled her eyes. “God, yes. Go and have a bloody row. It’d do us all a favour.”

 

The Doctor nodded once, shortly, then followed Rose onto the TARDIS. He found her in their bedroom, curled up on their bed, back facing him. 

 

“Don’t pretend to be asleep,” he snapped. “I can feel that you’re not. And whatever this is, we’re having it out now.” Rose surprised him by punctuating his remark with a sniffle. The Doctor blinked. “Are you crying?”

 

“No,” she denied, unconvincingly. 

 

He hesitated. Rose seldom cried; he had little idea what to do with that. “Rose—”

 

“I said I’m fine.”

 

He took a deep breath then clambered onto the bed with her. 

 

“You’ve got trainers on still,” she said, trying to seem stern and upset with him. And then suddenly, without warning, she was sobbing, and she curled into him instinctively as she cried. “Why would she call him _weird_? He’s _Brem_. He’s _brilliant_. The _nerve_ of her.”

 

“Is that what you’re upset about?”

 

“No. Of course not. I wanted him to have a good time—”

 

“I think he had the time of his life, actually, from what I could feel of the escapade.”

 

“I wanted him to…fit in.”

 

“We are never going to fit in, Rose.”

 

“I know,” she sobbed into his chest. “But he’s only a little boy. And he needs _friends_ —”

 

“He needs friends?” he interrupted, softly. “Or _you_ need friends?”

 

Rose hiccupped then cried harder. 

 

“Oh, Rose,” he sighed, pressing her tightly against him. “It isn’t Brem, or Athena, or even me, for a change. It’s you. _You’re_ lonely.”

 

“I’m not lonely,” she denied, trying to catch her breath. “I’m not lonely. I just want one person to tell me I’m doing this right.”

 

The Doctor smoothed his hand soothingly over her hair. “You want a friend. But you came with me. And I can’t give you one.”

 

“I’d rather have you than a friend, I just—I’m sorry. I feel silly and human.”

 

“Trust me, humans do not have the market cornered on loneliness.”

 

“I’m sorry,” she said again, lifting her head up so she could look down at him. Her face was red and splotchy and wet with her tears. “I have you. I cannot believe that I am being so difficult about this.”

 

“Do you want to stay here for a while?”

 

“Where?” She hiccupped again. 

 

“Earth. Here. With your mother. Just for a little while.”

 

Rose sniffled, getting herself under control. “Could we? I’m sorry. But could we?”

 

“Stop apologizing.” He lifted his head, began kissing the tears off her cheeks. “Have I told you lately that I’d be lost without you? Silly human though you are?”

 

“I’m okay,” she promised him.

 

“You’re not. You persist in not leaving me, in this ridiculous life I make you and the kids lead, and you’re not okay.”

 

“I am much better than I would be without you.”

 

“I’m not so sure that’s true, either.”

 

“It’s true. It’s true,” she insisted.

 

“We’ll stay here for a bit. Stay put. One place.”

 

She leaned her head back against his chest and breathed him in. “Thank you,” she whispered. 

_[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53469.html) _   



	10. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (11/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (11/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)     
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, OCs  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem and Athena. They're all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)   , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)   , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

[](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)   is wise in many ways. She is also one of the nicest people I know. Oh, she's also a great beta. Also thanks to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)  , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) \- [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) \- [Ch. 9](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html) \- [Ch. 10](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53186.html) 

  
_Chapter Eleven_  
 

Rose felt better. Actually, once the Doctor said they could stay put, she found she didn’t really _want_ to stay put. It wasn’t the travelling that bothered her. The travelling never had bothered her, and didn’t bother her now. And the Doctor, once past the initial shock of his revelation that Rose was behaving this way because _she_ was the lonely one, went babbling on about humans being social creatures, drawn to communities, needing a support system, it taking a village to raise a child, et cetera. His solution was simple, and worked surprisingly well: They did repeat visits. Where once they never wasted a trip on the same time period of the same planet, now the Doctor indulged Rose’s desire to make friends and visit them. They went to see Muj and Kaj; they made friends in other places; they visited Jackie more often, closer together, to give Rose a chance to make contact with other people her age with children around Brem and Athena’s ages. 

 

Brem got skilled at being vague about almost everything. He was stubborn and petulant about it at first but he stopped talking about alien species, stopped revealing that he could rattle off laws of physics as if they were nursery rhymes—the Doctor had taught them to him as if they were nursery rhymes, but that didn’t make it any better, thought Rose. He followed his mother’s lead, answering all questions about his father and their lifestyle as noncommittally as possible. He was a doctor, and they travelled a lot, to exotic places. It seemed to explain why Brem was so precocious, why the Doctor was so eccentric. And Brem had inherited his father’s talent for exuding charm even when he was trying to be belligerent, so that humans and aliens, left and right, merely found him adorable. 

 

He had a habit of pushing his father’s buttons, which he did with an automatic ease that amused Rose. Brem could be gregarious with Athena, would ask Rose endless questions about everything until he drove her spare. He was less like that with the Doctor. He asked him questions, and, indeed, was genuinely interested in everything his father did. But he talked less around him, seemed a bit drawn in on himself, as if he suspected his father would command all of him and he needed to keep some for himself. 

 

Rose rather loved it, the way Brem would calmly say, “You’re rambling,” when his father got off the topic of the question, as if Brem didn’t do that _every time_ she asked him something he didn’t want to answer. “Have you brushed your teeth?” she would ask, and off Brem would go: “Dad says that enamel is the hardest substance in the body, you know. The _hardest_. Like, if we were all covered in enamel, it’d be a lot safer for us, you know. And the Hgirgoihwgogeiolfw—”Brem could always rattle off impossible alien names with far more ease than Rose; she wondered sometimes if he didn’t speak Gallifreyan that the TARDIS translated for her, and that the alien names were far easier in Gallifreyan—”that live on GHRWOUH—Dad says they always write the name of that planet in all caps, you know, because it’s respectful—they’re made entirely of enamel, all over, well, they don’t call it enamel, they call it something else, I can’t remember—” And Rose would eventually say, firmly, “Brem. Brush your teeth.”

 

But when his father answered a question that way, Brem sighed and rolled his eyes and pretended enormous annoyance. Brem did a lot of sighing and rolling his eyes at his father. “He learned that from you,” the Doctor told her, and Rose smiled. 

 

And then Brem said, one day--watching his father thread what looked like a large needle with a tiny filament of wire, as they sat on the couch in the library and Rose sprawled on her stomach helping Athena comb the hair of a doll they’d picked up on the last planet (the doll’s hair grew, through some regenerative process that the Doctor had explained to Athena at great length on the way back to the TARDIS; Athena, the very opposite of Brem in those matters, had listened very politely)--“Can we have a puppy?”

 

“Can we have a what?” asked the Doctor, absently, clearly not having paid attention. 

 

Rose rolled over so she could see his face. His tongue was out, caught between his teeth in concentration, as he worked at threading the needle, and she smiled and thought she’d have to find time to seduce him, because she wanted that tongue on her. As he sometimes did, he seemed to catch the direction of her thoughts and looked up at her. 

 

“Stop it,” he said, before turning his attention back to the needle. 

 

Rose grinned. 

 

“Can we have a puppy?” insisted Brem, snuggling onto his father’s lap and jostling the needle about. 

 

“Brem, I’m trying to thread this,” said the Doctor. “Whatever it is you want, can’t you ask your mum?”

 

Brem looked at her. “Can we have a puppy?”

 

Athena had stopped brushing the doll’s hair, interested in the outcome of this conversation. 

 

Rose considered the question. “I don’t know,” she mused. “I never really thought about having a pet on the TARDIS. Getting your father to behave is enough work, without worrying about a dog.”

 

Brem and Athena giggled appreciatively at her joke, and the Doctor suddenly looked up from his needle. 

 

“What are we talking about?” he asked. 

 

“Getting a dog for the TARDIS,” she answered. 

 

“Absolutely not. Out of the question.”

 

“Oh, but, Dad!” cajoled Brem, squirming about on his lap. “Please please please please please?”

 

“Daddy, please?” begged Athena, getting to her feet and drunkenly lurching at her father’s leg to throw her arms around it. Athena still spent most of her time off-balance. She had walked earlier than Brem, but it was taking her longer to get the hang of it. “It’s tricky,” the Doctor had assured her when she fell particularly hard against the TARDIS grating one day and burst into tears. “Lots of limbs flailing about that have got to be made to behave,” he’d said, and then tickled her back into her usual good mood. 

 

The Doctor looked besieged, setting aside his needle. “We can’t have a _dog_ in the _TARDIS_ ,” he said. 

 

“Why not?” Brem demanded. “The TARDIS wouldn’t mind.”

 

“The TARDIS is _pretending_ she doesn’t mind because the TARDIS spoils you,” said the Doctor, ignoring Rose’s snort at that statement. “The TARDIS doesn’t want a dog roaming about, doing…things…in the control room. It could strand us in the middle of someplace unpleasant. Someplace like—”

 

“My mum’s flat,” suggested Rose, still grinning. 

 

“Exactly,” said the Doctor. “Listen to your mother. Imagine that. Grandma. Fussing all over you endlessly. All because you wouldn’t heed my advice not to have a dog in the TARDIS.”

 

“Grandma’s nice,” defended Athena. 

 

“Grandma calls you Theenie,” said the Doctor. “When we gave you a perfectly beautiful name.”

 

“Mum calls me Theenie,” Athena pointed out. 

 

“Yes. And she’s lucky I still talk to her.”

 

Rose chuckled. 

 

“You call me Brem,” Brem pointed out, with calm logic. “And, anyway, we’re off the subject of _us_ having a _dog_ on the _TARDIS_. I think the TARDIS _needs_ one. It’s so _quiet_.”

 

“The TARDIS,” the Doctor rejoined, dryly, “is anything but quiet, my boy.”

“That’s true,” said Athena, clambering up onto the couch. The Doctor grabbed her hand, helping her automatically. “You and Brem talk a lot.”

 

“She gets more like your mother every day,” the Doctor told Rose, frowning. 

 

Rose laughed, leaning back on the floor and enjoying the interplay. Her Doctor. Her children. Who would have thought? 

 

The Doctor removed his glasses, tossing them negligently on the table behind the couch, which was covered with the odds and ends and bits and bobs of Doctor- and Brem-tinkering. “Look, we can’t have a dog. How are your mother and I going to take care of a dog? We can barely take care of the two of you.”

 

“That’s not true,” Brem told him, seriously. “You and Mum do a great job.”

 

The Doctor burst out laughing. “Yes. Brilliant. We do. But you’re still not getting a dog.”

 

“But we’d take care of it, me and Theen—Athena,” he corrected himself, hastily. “Wouldn’t we?” He looked to his sister for support. 

 

Athena nodded her head sagely, sending her pigtails flying about around her head. Athena’s hair was long and gorgeous and completely unmanageable: thick and constantly tangled and prone to doing whatever it wanted to do. Rose called it Time Lord hair. She had to admit it was devastatingly attractive on the grown men of the species, but a right pain on the young girls of the species. 

 

“Wellllll, that is a lovely resolution, Brem, it really is, but forgive me for thinking that you are rather too young, even remarkable Time Lord-human hybrid though you are, to take care of a dog.” Brem took a deep breath in preparation for launching an assault against his father, but his father gathered his defences and beat him to it. “Let me tell you about dogs, Brem. They are descended from wolves, and wolves are decidedly not tame, now are they? Can you imagine you and Athena taking care of wolves? And anyway, you know what’s a dog? Goofy. Do you really want to let anything in your house that looks like _Goofy_? I know he’s supposed to be cute and amusing, but aren’t we above _Goofy_ at this point, kids? We’d be better off reading about dogs, and then you could see how much trouble they are. _Where the Red Fern Grows_? Have you read that? Read that, and then see if you think it’d be worth it to get a dog. It’ll spiral you into a crying jag from which you’ll never emerge. Welllllll, until you remember that you’d just got some nice Hesperan butterballs in the fridge—taste like chocolate but a tad sweeter—and then that’ll perk you up nicely. Oh! Or _Go Dog Go_! What bloody snobby stuck-up creatures dogs are, aren’t they? ‘Do you like my hat? No, I do not like your hat. Good-bye. Good-bye.’”

 

Athena was listening to her father indulgently, but Brem had narrowed his eyes at him. As the Doctor paused for air, he interjected, “Are you quite finished?”

 

“Actually, not—” began the Doctor. 

 

“You are off the topic,” Brem clipped out, adjusting himself on his father’s lap for his own lecture, tugging at the little green jumper he insisted on wearing everywhere. Rose had been waiting for the Time Lord attachment to a uniform to catch on, and Brem had settled on a green jumper for the time being. “ _Go Dog Go_ is _hardly_ considered standard behaviour for Earth dogs, just like cats don’t wear hats. And nobody asked whether we could have wolves living in the TARDIS. Or Goofy. Just a dog. Any kind of dog you like, you can choose. But we only asked for a dog. The TARDIS has a garden for the dog to run around in, and I’m sure the TARDIS would make us a doghouse if you wanted to get really technical, but he could just sleep in the nursery with me and Athena.”

 

“It’s ‘with Athena and me,’” corrected the Doctor. “And you and Athena don’t sleep.”

 

“Fine. The dog could sleep with Mum, then. As for _Where the Red Fern Grows_ ,” continued Brem, calmly, “do we have it? I’ll read it.”

 

A frown flickered across the Doctor’s face. “No dog. Understood?”

 

Brem answered the frown with one of his own. “That’s not fair. Why can’t we have a dog? You can’t just say ‘no’ without giving any reasons.”

 

“Yes, I can. Do you know why? Because I’m the Doctor, and there isn’t a higher authority.”

 

Brem looked at him steadily for a second, then turned to Rose. “Mum? Can we have a dog?”

 

Rose tried not to smile, standing up. “Truth be told, kids, it’s your father’s ship. He’s just so kind as to let the rest of us inhabit it with him. If he says no dog, it probably ought to be no dog. C’mon, let’s wash up for supper.”

 

She leaned down and picked Athena up. “But I don’t _want_ to wash up for supper,” Athena told her, seriously. “I want a puppy.”

 

Brem’s eyes lit up and  Rose could tell he had a Brilliant Plan. _God save us all from Time Lords and Brilliant Plans_ , she thought. “That’s right! Theenie and I are on a hunger strike until we get a puppy!” he announced, triumphantly, and shot his father a challenging look. 

 

“Fine,” said the Doctor, mildly. “Don’t eat. I’ll be interested to see how long it takes human-Time Lord hybrids to die of starvation.”

 

Athena’s eyes widened in alarm, but Brem’s tiny-Doctor features scrunched up in irritation, and he stomped out of the room, huffing. 

 

Rose smiled and kissed Athena’s fair, chubby cheek. “’s okay, Theenie. We’ll eat and nobody needs to tell Brem.”

 

She had been going to ask the Doctor if they couldn’t go somewhere for supper, as there wasn’t much food in the house, but she fell back instead on her safety net of cereal and carried a bowl to Brem, who she found in the nursery, using his sonic screwdriver to lock 

and unlock the door to Athena’s dollhouse. She set the cereal bowl down beside him. “If you don’t tell Dad, I won’t,” she said, and winked at him. 

 

He looked at her for a second then pulled the cereal bowl over to him. Rose balanced herself precariously on one of the tiny chairs Athena used when she played tea party, set Athena on the other one with her own bowl of cereal in front of her. 

 

“So where’d this dog thing come from?” Rose asked Brem, conversationally. 

 

“Why _can’t_ we have a dog?” asked Brem, sulkily. “All little human boys have dogs. Just because I’m a human-Time Lord hybrid doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have a dog.”

 

She still worried about Brem, happy and well-adjusted as he seemed to be. He was a little boy with no steady playmates, no real fixed point that was Home other than a spaceship that bounced its way through space and time and sometimes put all of them in terrifying danger that she and the Doctor kept trying to hide from them. Maybe he needed a dog, she thought. Someone who was always there. Someone who wasn’t a sister, or a mother, or a father, or a spaceship, or an alien. Just a normal everyday dog, like billions of little human boys before and after him. “Well,” mused Rose. “You’ve got me there. That’s foolproof logic.”

 

Brem looked at her suspiciously, as if he thought she was joking. Then he grinned in delight. “Really? D’you really think so?”

 

“I do.”

 

“So you’ll tell Dad we’ll get a dog?”

 

“Your dad and I don’t really just _tell_ each other to do things, Brem. We make joint decisions.”

 

“So you’ll make a joint decision to get a dog. You’ll decision the dog. Decision the dog,” Brem repeated, rolling the phrase around his mouth with relish. 

 

He was so like his father sometimes that it hurt her, she thought, watching him as he hummed happily and shoved cereal into his mouth. “Watch your sister,” she said, standing up. “And stay here.” She walked out of the nursery, shutting the door and asking the TARDIS, silently, to lock it for her and watch the kids for a second. Then she headed back to the library. 

 

The Doctor was back to trying to thread his needle, specs on, tongue out. Rose crossed her arms and leaned against the doorjamb. 

 

“You know, when you stick your tongue out like that, it makes me want to shag you mindless.”

 

The Doctor dropped the needle and wire. “And there went all my concentration,” he said, looking over at her. He hooked a finger around the knot of his tie and began to loosen it. “Tie? Specs? On? Off?”

 

She smiled, pushing herself off the doorjamb and walking over to him. “Down, boy,” she said, cheekily. 

 

He made a face and dropped his hand from his tie and flopped against the back of the sofa. “Oh, no. Don’t you go and start talking about dogs, too.”

 

She sat next to him on the sofa, tucking her legs under her and twirling a lock of his hair around her finger. “You look just like Brem when you sulk.”

 

“Of course I’m sulking,” he pouted, tossing his glasses aside. “You said you wanted to shag me mindless. This?” He gestured between the two of them. “Not shagging me mindless. Me? Very much in possession of my mind.”

 

“For now. Give it a second, would you? I want to talk to you first.” She walked her fingers across his shoulder, followed them and breathed into the hollow behind his ear. 

 

“No, you’ve ruined the mood.” He took an unsteady breath and folded his arms with a resolve she knew he was faking. “You’re trying to seduce me into getting a dog.”

 

“What would be so wrong about getting a dog?”

 

“I had a dog once, when I was young and foolish. It was a _disaster_.”

 

“Aw,” she said, smiling against his neck, scraping her teeth against his skin gently. He flinched. “Aren’t you still young? And foolish?” she breathed, against the corner of his jaw. 

 

He tried to move his head away, half-heartedly, an act of token resistance. 

 

“Tell me what happened with your dog,” she whispered against his ear. 

 

“He…” The Doctor sighed as she nuzzled her way along the base of his hairline, on the nape of his neck, and moved his head forward a bit to give her access. 

 

“Your dog,” she reminded him, when he didn’t seem inclined to continue. 

 

“Oh!” he remembered. “He chewed my sonic screwdriver.” He groaned as she sucked on his earlobe and lifted his hands to her waist. 

 

She resisted their tug. “You just made yourself a new one, didn’t you?” she asked, combing her hands through his hair as she planted a line of kisses up along his cheek. 

 

“Yes, but—” He seemed to wake up abruptly from the haze of arousal she’d been trying to keep him in, and jerked away from her lips. Her hands stayed in his hair, holding him in place. “It was _traumatic_ , Rose! It was _irritating_. He chewed _everything_. And he was forever running away and _exploring_. Rule number one: Don’t wander off. Not even my dog could follow that one. Stop smiling. It’s not funny, Rose.”

 

“I’ll help take care of the dog.”

 

“You sleep eight hours a day!” he exclaimed. “You’re hardly ever awake. I’ll have to watch the bloody dog! And the kids! And if you think they aren’t handfuls, if you think they calm down just because Mummy’s asleep—”

 

“Are they difficult?” The thought had never occurred to her before. He had really never complained to her about the time he spent alone with the kids. She had always been jealous of that time, to be honest. 

 

“No.” He sighed and closed his eyes. “No, they’re not difficult. They’re kids. They’re _my_ kids, which I will admit for the first and only time and will deny fervently if you ever mention this again, perhaps makes them a tad more difficult than other people’s kids are.”

 

Rose bit back her smile. “Maybe just a smidge,” she agreed. 

 

“Right,” he said, and opened his eyes and looked at her and leaned his head back against the sofa. 

 

She kept combing her fingers through his hair. “What do you have against a dog? Really. Tell me the truth, or I won’t shag you mindless in a few minutes.”

 

“I don’t have anything against dogs. Not specifically. Not per se. I have things against…” He trailed off, dropped his eyes. 

 

She was suddenly alarmed, shifted beside him uncomfortably. “Doctor…”

 

“I dream,” he said, and he squeezed his eyes shut. “Whenever I sleep, no matter when or how little, I dream, and you’re…you’re falling away from me. I can’t catch you. You’re screaming my name, you’re begging me to stop you, and I…don’t. I can’t. I try to but I’m frozen, and you’re sobbing, I can hear you, so clearly, it—”

 

“How long?” she asked. 

 

“What?” 

 

“How long have you been dreaming this?”

 

He took a deep breath. “I don’t know. It feels like forever. I think it’s only been a few weeks. A month? Maybe two?”

 

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

 

“What was there to tell? I—”

 

“That’s why you’re there,” she realized. 

 

He opened his eyes and looked at her. “What?”

 

“That’s why you’re there, when I wake up in the morning, you’re almost always there, just looking at me.” He had shrugged that off, with jokes, and honestly, she was so happy to wake up with him and be able to cuddle with him, even if only for a few minutes, that she hadn’t really questioned it. She had thought, really, that it had been connected to her uncharacteristic crying fit, that she had worried him more than either one of them would say. 

 

He hesitated, then admitted, “Sometimes I just have to make sure you’re still there, that you haven’t…vanished. Time Lord dreams aren’t—”

 

“I don’t give a damn about Time Lord dreams,” she said, sharply, cupping her hands around his face. “Look at me. Listen to me. I’m not going anywhere, I’m not falling anywhere, I’m here. I’m not going to vanish.” He said nothing. “You don’t believe me.”

 

He lifted up his hand, drew it along her cheek, took a shaky breath. “I believe…that you will never leave me, no matter how much I think sometimes that you ought to. And I believe…that I will never _not_ save you. Never. I will never be frozen while I watch you fall. Which means the dream isn’t going to happen. I will not let it happen.”

 

“Right. Exactly.”

 

“It’s just that sometimes I feel like I’m…balancing. I’m balancing all of you—you, Brem, Athena, this entire _impossibly_ good life—and that if I lose my concentration, for just a second, it’ll all…”

 

“It won’t.”

 

“And I know it seems innocuous, a dog, in the TARDIS, but Brem asks and suddenly I’m thinking, It’s all so bloody perfect. What if I say, ‘Yes, darling, let’s get a dog, let’s get five dozen dogs and fill the TARDIS with joy,’ and it’s like Mrs. O’Leary’s cow.”

 

“Like who?”

 

“Mrs. O’Leary’s cow, tipped over a lantern and started the Great Chicago Fire and destroyed the city.”

 

“If you feel that way, we won’t get a dog.”

 

“What will we tell Brem?”

 

“We’ll tell him anything. You’ve already said no, for perfectly valid reasons. Brem will forget about the dog.”

 

“Brem’s on a hunger strike.”

 

“Brem’s eating cereal in the nursery right now.”

 

“Little cheater,” said the Doctor, hollowly, as if he thought a jest were called for. “I hate to disappoint him.”

 

“You have never disappointed him. He worships you. He isn’t going to stop because of a dog. He’s never going to stop. He will adore you until the day he runs out of regenerations.” The thought suddenly occurred to her; they’d never discussed it. “He will regenerate, won’t he?”

 

“Yes,” he said. “They both will. And then we’ll be a family of people who look nothing like each other.”

 

“But it doesn’t matter. We’ll still be a family.” She leaned her forehead against his and closed her eyes and breathed with him. 

 

“We could get him a Barcelonan dog,” he said, after a second. “He’d like that.”

 

“Doctor, you don’t have to get him a dog.”

 

“I know. I want to. I feel better now. I feel like the dog is…Like it was silly to be worried.”

 

“You should have told me about the dreams long ago.”

 

“I am sometimes still very young and foolish.”

 

“Indeed,” she agreed, and kissed him. “Do you want to go tell Brem?”

 

“In a bit. Didn’t you promise to shag me mindless?”

 

She grinned at him. “Tie off, specs on, take off your trousers,” she said, pulling her top over her head. 

 

“Excellent,” said the Doctor, reaching behind him for his glasses as he pulled his tie off. 

 

And after they’d made love, after they’d stumbled to their bedroom, shedding clothing, pausing for kisses and groping and caresses, after he’d collapsed, mindless, into a vulnerable, shattered heap, she gathered him up and whispered at him, over and over, hoping to invade whatever part of his subconscious sent those dreams to him, “I won’t fall. I won’t leave. I’m _here_. _Always here_.” And he held her so tight she worried he would suffocate her. But she let him, until he gathered himself with an effort she could feel, rolled away from her and reached for her hand. 

 

“Let’s go tell Brem about the Barcelonan puppy,” he said. 

 

“Let’s get dressed first,” she suggested. 

 

“Ah. Yes. Good point.”

 

“And can we have dinner in Barcelona?” she asked, pulling on the knickers he handed her. “There kind of isn’t any food on this ship.”

_[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/56634.html) _   
  



	11. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (12/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (12/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)     
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, Jackie, OCs  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem and Athena. They're all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)   , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)   , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

[](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)   is the most fabulous beta. She's also at the official opening of Nationals Park. Hurrah! Also thanks to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)  , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) \- [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) \- [Ch. 9](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html) \- [Ch. 10](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53186.html) \- [Ch. 11](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53469.html) 

  


_Chapter Twelve_

 

Rose insisted on Christmas. She insisted on Christmas trees and Christmas gifts, on Christmas dinner with her mum. Originally, the Doctor had thought it strange and very human. “Time Lords don’t believe in Father Christmas!” he’d exclaimed, which had led to a retort that the kids were half-human and so were _definitely_ going to believe in Father Christmas. 

 

He had to admit, lazing on the couch in Jackie’s parlour, watching Rose nestle satsumas into the toes of their stockings, that there really was something to be said for this human invention of Christmas. When done correctly, Christmas was remarkable. 

 

“Are you going to help, then?” Jackie asked him, passing by him with an armful of toys to be wrapped. 

 

“Oh, I’m…rubbish at wrapping.” He waved his hand negligently. “And I’m keeping track of the kids. In my head. Got to make sure they don’t wander out of the nursery. When you’ve got kids who don’t sleep, it’s hard playing Father Christmas.”

 

“The TARDIS locked the nursery door,” remarked Rose, now following the satsumas with chocolates. The Doctor watched raptly, frowning when she skipped his stocking. “There’s no way the kids could wander out.”

 

“Oi,” he pointed out. “You missed my stocking.”

 

“Did I?” He watched her deposit extra chocolates into her stocking. 

 

His frown deepened. “I hope you’re going to share those.”

 

“You’re such a baby,” she grinned at him. “You’re worse than the children. Do you think Santa will find you’ve been nice? When he checks his list twice?”

 

“There is no Santa. _I’m_ the closest thing to Santa—”

 

“Please give me your highest-authority-in-the-universe speech again,” said Rose, smiling, as she dropped some mini-screwdrivers into Brem’s stocking for him. Not sonic, but he would love their quaintness. 

 

“I _am_ the highest authority in the universe!” he protested. “There isn’t—”

 

“Honest to God,” interrupted Jackie, curling some ribbon on a package, “don’t you ever get tired of the sound of your own voice?”

 

The Doctor blinked. “No. Are there people that happens to?”

 

Jackie rolled her eyes and pulled out another stocking, handing it to Rose. “Here you go.”

 

“Who’s that stocking for?” asked the Doctor with interest. 

 

“Madrid,” answered Jackie. 

 

“You got the dog a stocking?”

 

“Why not?” asked Rose. “He’s been good. We’re going to fill it with treats.”

 

It had been Brem’s idea to name the puppy Madrid. The Doctor did not think the name as clever as Rose and Brem did. _Granada_ was Barcelona’s sister planet, a fact they seemed to be ignoring. 

 

He lay on the couch, watching Rose and her mother wrap gifts for the children and place them under the tree, exchanging opinions about the dolls they’d bought Athena, the mechanical sets they’d bought Brem. The kids were relentlessly spoiled, and all toys were rather superfluous, but it was Rose’s Christmas and he let her have it. 

 

Finally, they finished. Jackie stood up, yawning, and stretched. “Time for bed for us humans,” she remarked. 

 

“I guess I’ll kill some time tinkering with the TARDIS,” he said, standing up. “If I go into the nursery, the kids’ll never rest until they pester me out here to open the gifts.”

 

Rose took his hand, smiling, and turned back to Jackie. “We’ll see you bright and early, Mum.”

 

“Night!” Jackie called, as they walked into the TARDIS. 

 

“Don’t tinker,” Rose said. “Come to bed with me.”

 

“What an offer.”

 

“I have a gift for you,” she said, grinning. 

 

His grin widened. “An even better offer. Is it chocolate for my stocking?”

 

Rose looked thoughtful. “I suppose that could be some sort of euphemism for something, but I’m not sure what.”

 

**********************

 

The Doctor always started Christmas morning early. He blamed it on the kids, but it was really him. He’d grown used to the company of the children while Rose slept, and hated the sudden loneliness of Christmas Eve. He didn’t like to be reminded of the time when the TARDIS had been so painfully quiet and his footsteps had echoed--it made him edgy. So he always invaded the nursery as soon as he thought he could and still get away with it with Rose and Jackie. 

 

The nursery was darkened, and the TARDIS had scattered stars over the ceiling. Brem and Athena were lying on their backs, staring up at the stars. One of them was blinking bright red, and Brem was saying, “That’s the one where Kaj and Muj live, remember, Athena?”

 

The Doctor smiled. Brem was right on that count. Brilliant with astronomy, that one. Of course. 

 

It was Madrid who noticed him first, leaping up from where he’d been sprawled with Brem and Athena and bounding over to him, barking happily. Madrid was not a bad puppy at all, and even Jackie had come to adore him, in spite of his noselessness. Brem had picked him out himself, during the trip to Barcelona; he was midnight black, with one single distinctive streak of silver on one floppy ear. As the Doctor had predicted, Brem spent little time taking care of Madrid and more time playing with him, but somehow neither he nor Rose ever found time to call him on it. Rose adored the dog, and the Doctor would never have admitted it but he adored the dog just as much. 

 

“Has Father Christmas come?” asked Brem, clambering to his feet, eagerly. 

 

The Doctor grinned. “Indeed. Let’s go wake Mum.”

 

“C’mon, Athena,” said Brem, pulling her impatiently to her feet and then dashing out of the room. 

 

The Doctor paused to swing Athena into his arms, following Brem and Madrid, who kept barking with excitement. He walked into their bedroom in time to see Brem and Madrid launch themselves onto the bed. Rose grunted sleepily. 

 

“Are you still sleeping, Mum?” Brem demanded. “Wake up! It’s Christmas morning!”

 

“Oh, Brem,” moaned Rose. “What time is it?”

 

“It’s morning,” he assured her. 

 

“I really don’t think it is.”

 

The Doctor crawled onto the bed with Athena. Rose was blearily pushing Madrid away as he was licking at her face. 

 

“What time is it?” Rose asked him. 

 

“Tell your mum how beautiful she looks first thing in the morning,” the Doctor told Brem. 

 

“Flattery will get you nowhere. Grandma’s going to kill you if we get her up this early.”

 

“Oh, come on!” protested the Doctor. “It’s Christmas! Look!” The Doctor, delighted, gestured above the bed. “Mistletoe! What’s the human tradition involving mistletoe?” The Doctor looked expectantly at Brem, who knit his brows together in thought. 

 

“Kiss!” exclaimed Athena, and instantly leaned over and kissed her mother’s cheek. 

 

Rose smiled. “Oh, that’s lovely sweetheart. Thank you.”

 

“Oh, right!” Brem recalled, and did the same. 

 

“Kisses all around,” said the Doctor, kissing Athena and then reaching out and tickling both her and Brem. They squirmed about the bed, Madrid tumbling over them in an effort to gain the Doctor’s attention. He finished by kissing the top of Brem’s head, and then grinning at Rose. “Happy Christmas,” he murmured, brushing his lips over hers. 

 

“Really? Honestly? My mum’s gonna kill you.”

 

“Eh, it’s been a while since I’ve been slapped.” He rolled out of bed. “Come on, kids. Let’s go wake up your grandmother.”

 

Rose, sighing, listened to them as they went barrelling out of the room, three overly energetic Time Lords and a puppy. She rubbed at her eyes and pulled herself out of bed, grabbing for a robe and knotting its belt as she shuffled out of the TARDIS. 

 

Brem and Athena had roused her mother and were dragging her into the living room. 

 

“Can’t we have a cuppa, kids, before we start opening presents?”

 

“Making it!” called the Doctor from the kitchen. 

 

“What time is it?” asked Rose, as the room was still dark. 

 

“Bloody 4:30 in the morning. Your kids are—”

 

“The kids haven’t anything to do with it,” Rose interjected, turning toward the kitchen with her hands on her hips. “Doctor…”

 

“The tea’s coming,” he promised, willfully misunderstanding her. 

 

Rose frowned and turned back to the kids. “Stockings first,” she said, and watched them fall to it, items tumbling out of their respective stockings  pell-mell. They delved into the chocolate with enthusiasm and Rose, hungry herself now that she was up, pulled her stocking over to her and treated herself to some chocolate of her own. 

 

The Doctor emerged with tea, which he handed to Jackie and Rose. 

 

“Look, Dad!” exclaimed Brem, holding up his mini-screwdriver kit. 

 

The Doctor pulled out his specs so he could examine the mini-screwdrivers more closely, as he settled on the floor next to Brem. “What have you got there?”

 

Rose watched them, two heads of untidy hair tipped together. Athena toddled over to them to show off her own toys; Jackie began handing out gifts, including a bonefor Madrid who settled down to gnaw on it. The kids worked their way through their presents, tearing off gift wrap and creating an enormous pile of discarded paper. By the time they were finished the sun was dawning, and Jackie offered to make the kids pancakes and carted them off to the kitchen, clutching their choice toys. Brem had already managed to dissect the toaster he’d been given, leaving parts of it strewn all over the floor, and Rose had to pick her way over them to reach the gift under the tree. 

 

The Doctor was playing tug-of-war with Madrid, and looked up when she placed the gift on his lap. “For me?”

 

“Don’t sound surprised. It’s Christmas. I get you something every Christmas.” She settled onto the floor beside him, absently petting Madrid, who whined now that the Doctor had abandoned their game. 

 

“And I tell you it isn’t necessary.”

 

“Of course it’s necessary. It’s Christmas.”

 

“But I don’t really celebrate Christmas.” Even as he said it, he was ripping the wrapping paper, eyes bright with anticipation. 

 

She smiled. He was impossible to buy for but he loved gifts, which was why she made the effort. 

 

He was presented this time with a photo album, filled with photos of him with the kids, cradling Athena while he read to her, listening to Brem, sitting up on the console where his father had lifted him, as he told him a story. The photos were interspersed with the kids’ artwork. Brem, who had picked up the bits and pieces of written Gallifreyan the Doctor had taken to teaching him, had written him messages in the language, while Athena’s notes were in the easier-to-grasp English that her mother could still help her with. 

 

The Doctor turned the pages, remarking, “That’s why you’ve been running around taking pictures like a lunatic.”

 

“They aren’t going to be young forever. Look at Brem. He gets bigger every day. I thought you might want to remember…”

 

“I love it.” The Doctor turned, pulling her into a hug. “Thank you so much, I love it.” He pulled back again. “But there aren’t any pictures of you in it.”

 

“Well, I was taking the pictures,” she pointed out, logically. 

 

“I suppose. Well.” He looked admiringly at his album. “Now I’m ashamed to give you your present. It’s nothing so brilliant as this.”

 

Rose blinked in surprise. “You got me a present?” He didn’t usually. He normally forgot, so caught up with the kids’ presents. She was suddenly concerned that this was connected to those dreams that he’d never mentioned again but she knew he still had. 

 

He ruffled his hair, uncomfortable, as he reached into his coat pocket. “It’s really nothing. I mean, it’s very…human. I thought, for a change… I don’t give you very many human things, but this one seemed… Here.” He thrust it at her, blushing. 

 

Rose was surprised, took it, and sat back. The box was small, and she thought instantly he must have bought her jewellery, which seemed incredible to her. 

 

“If you don’t like it, we can…” continued the Doctor. “This silly human practice, of pretending we know what everyone else is going to like…”

 

“Shh,” she said, pulling the bow off and following it with the wrapping paper. Yes, a small velvet box, clearly a jewellery box, and she held her breath as she opened it. To find an engagement ring. She had been bracing for something completely outrageous but had not really expected an outright engagement ring, a square-cut solitaire diamond in a platinum band. 

 

“The thing is…” said the Doctor, as she stared down at it. “I don’t want to…I mean, I don’t mean to presume…I wouldn’t be preventing you from…That is to say… You could still… It’s just that you’re making all these friends everywhere, and there’s no way to… I mean, in every culture there’s a way to show… This just happens to be the human way… I mean, when people ask you uncomfortable questions… About the kids and—”

 

“Oh, shut up for just a second, would you?” she asked, before throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him for all she was worth. “Thank you.”

 

“If you don’t like it—”

 

“I love it. I absolutely adore it.” She pulled it out of the box, slipping it on the wrong hand so that her mother would not immediately start screeching about weddings. He wasn’t proposing. She didn’t think he would understand the point of it. But he was binding them together himself, in his own way. Which was enough. 

 

“Let’s have a proper Christmas,” he said. 

 

“We are having a proper Christmas.”

 

“No, let’s go somewhere. Somewhere marvellous. The six of us.”

 

“Six of us?”

 

“Your mum, too.”

 

“You want my mum to ride in the TARDIS?”

 

“As a special Christmas gift to me, d’you think she would?” He leapt up, all energy, dashing into the kitchen. “Jackie!” he exclaimed. 

 

She looked at him suspiciously. “What?”

 

“Do you know what there is not enough of at Christmastime?” He snagged a piece of bacon, brandishing it as he spoke. The kids were now watching his show raptly. “Snow! Real snow! Do you see any real snow?”

 

“Where can we get real snow, Dad?” asked Athena, thoughtfully. 

 

“Hippolita!” shouted Brem. 

 

“Hippolita! Correctamundo.” The Doctor winced. “And I promised myself I would never say that word again. But there you are.” He turned to Jackie, all cajoling grin. “C’mon, Jackie. What do you say?”

 

Rose leaned against the doorjamb and crossed her arms, interested to see if her mother would be the first female in time and space to resist his aren’t-I-adorable grin. 

 

“You want me to travel in that thing?”

 

“One little trip. One tiny, little trip. To Hippolita. You’ve never been, have you?”

 

Jackie looked at him as if he were daft. 

 

“Exactly. Exactly what I thought. Come on,” said the Doctor, taking the spatula out of Jackie’s hand and attempting to lead her. “Let’s go.”

 

“Hang on,” Jackie protested. “I didn’t even shut the stove off.”

 

“Brem, take care of that, will you?”

 

“And I can’t go like this, I’m not even dressed.”

 

“My ship is so remarkable, Jackie. You don’t _need_ to get dressed. Kids, tell your grandmother about the size of the wardrobe.”

 

“But—” Jackie said, helplessly, as he tugged her inexorably onto the TARDIS. 

 

“Perfect,” he said, closing the door and leaping over to the console. Brem and Athena raced over to help him, punching buttons and pulling levers. “That one there, Athena,” he said. “On your left. Are you ready, Jackie?” He looked over at her, beaming. 

 

Jackie was clutching one of the coral arches, white-knuckled. “So help me God, if I miss a year of my life because of this…”

 

“Oh, no chance,” said the Doctor, confidently, as he flipped the final lever and the TARDIS gave a jerk into motion. 

 

“Could be a bit steadier, couldn’t it?” Jackie shouted at Rose, over the noise. “How you don’t get motion-sick, I can’t imagine.”

 

“Oh, Rose is an excellent traveller. Stellar--literally. First-rate.” The Doctor bounced around the console, weaving around his children as he banged and prodded controls. “Landing!” he announced, scooping up Athena and catching Brem as he staggered backward with the force of the impact. 

 

Jackie would have gone flying to the ground if she hadn’t still been clutching at the coral for dear life. “Bloody hell,” she gasped. “Is it always like that?”

 

“Oh, that was one of the better landings,” Brem told her, wisely. 

 

She looked at him in disbelief. 

 

“And now!” the Doctor practically shouted. “Wardrobe time! Race ya!” he told Brem, before darting out of the control room, Brem on his heels. 

 

“Is he always like this?” Jackie asked. 

 

“Only sometimes,” Rose said. “Let’s go.”

 

The TARDIS knew where they were, and helpfully set out snow clothing of all shapes and sizes. Rose helped Athena and Brem struggle into snowsuits and heavy boots and hats and gloves, while her mother ooh-ed and aah-ed over the cashmere scarves, the smart wool pea coats. 

 

“You know, this isn’t half brilliant,” Jackie said, approvingly, as Rose grinned and pulled on a pair of leather gloves. Jackie looked at the Doctor, who hadn’t changed an article of clothing. “Aren’t you changing?”

 

“Not something I really do,” he said, “change clothing. Are we all ready then?”

 

“Yes!” answered Brem and Athena, in unison. 

 

Madrid, who’d been fitted out in a tiny sweater, barked. 

 

“Off we go, then.” The Doctor turned on his heel, looking like the Pied Piper as he led the parade out of the TARDIS and onto Hippolita. 

 

The place was covered in snow--the sort of perfect, fluffy, fresh snow that was so rare. The sky was crystal blue and completely clear, and the glare of the sun off the snow on the ground was practically blinding. The Doctor was in rare form, overflowing with energy. He directed everyone as they made a snowman, separated them into teams for a fierce boys-against-girls snowball fight that ended with him tackling Athena into a giggling heap on the ground while Brem, uncertain whether she still needed to be attacked or not, pelted them with snowballs. They collapsed into making snow angels, that Madrid then ran through, destroying them. And the Doctor insisted that Jackie take a picture of all four of them. 

 

Rose, exhausted, finally settled next to her mother in a spot on the snow. It had started to flurry, and she leaned back and watched as the Doctor and Brem and Athena raced about, trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues. 

 

“It’s freezin’,” said Jackie. 

 

“Oh, they don’t notice,” Rose smiled. “They’re having fun.”

 

“Is this what it’s like every day, then?”

 

“No. Not really. I mean, sometimes, but…This has all been kind of perfect, this day. It isn’t usually really like this. He’s…” Rose trailed off, deciding against saying anything. Brem was frowning a bit at his father’s silliness, the way he sometimes did. 

 

“That one’s funny,” Jackie commented, nodding toward him. “He’s got a bit of your first Doctor in him.”

 

“Of course he does, Mum. They’re the same person.”

 

“I just think sometimes, that if you had your first Doctor meet that Doctor, he’d kind of sigh and shake his head the way Brem does.”

 

“They don’t need to meet. They’ve already met. They’re the same person,” said Rose, but she knew suddenly what her mother meant, and the thought made her smile. 

 

She felt her mother look at her closely. “So. That diamond you’re wearing. I guess it doesn’t mean we’re having a wedding?”

 

“No. That’s not his…Not the way he does things.” Rose smiled at her, brilliantly. “But it doesn’t matter. It’s his way of…It’s his way of binding us together. And there is no higher authority than him, you know.”

 

Jackie shook her head. “So long as you’re happy, darling.”

 

“I am happy. Can’t you tell?”

 

“I can, actually.”

 

“Oi!” said the Doctor, and tossed snow at Rose. “What are you up to?”

 

“Resting,” she told him. “Someone got me up at an unearthly hour this morning.”

 

“Who’d like some hot cocoa?” asked Jackie. 

 

“Me!” Brem and Athena both exclaimed. 

 

“C’mon, then.” Jackie pulled herself up. “Back in the TARDIS. Here we go, Theenie.” She leaned down to pick Athena up. 

 

“ _Athena_ ,” the Doctor corrected, in exasperation. “Her name is Athena.” He offered Rose his hand, pulled her up. “Why you both persist in calling her Theenie…”

 

“It suits her,” said Jackie, as they began walking to the TARDIS. 

 

“Not at all,” the Doctor sniffed. “Theenie doesn’t suit anybody. Theenie isn’t even a name.”

 

“Says the man who named his son Brem.”

 

“And what’s wrong with the name Brem?” demanded Brem, frowning. 

 

“Exactly,” agreed the Doctor, closing the TARDIS door. 

 

“Let’s get out of these wet things, and I’ll make you cocoa,” Jackie told the kids. “Which way to the nursery?”

 

“You should get out of this wet thing, too.” Rose tugged at the Doctor’s coat, drenched and filthy from being rolled around in the snow. 

 

“I’ll be fine,” he said. 

 

“Take it off so I can dry it, at least.”

 

He huffed as if this were an enormous imposition but obeyed, and Rose went off to change herself. When she came back, everyone was dressed in dry clothing in the control room, drinking hot cocoa, and the Doctor was blasting Ian Dury and having an argument with her mother. 

 

“When I said ‘music,’ I meant Christmas music!” she was saying. “It’s Christmas!”

 

“Jackie, have you _heard_ this song?” he asked, patiently, turning the music up even louder. 

 

But the TARDIS abruptly changed the track to _Jingle Bell Rock_ , and Jackie smiled smugly. 

 

“Oh, fine,” grumbled the Doctor. “Now you’ve got your way.” He startled her by grabbing her hand and pulling her into a lively, improvised two-step around the console, singing the song at her, just a tad off-key. 

 

“You’re absolutely mad,” Jackie told him, but she laughed as he twirled her and brought her back. The kids laughed, too, delighted. The Doctor got in moods like this, sometimes twirled Rose about, or picked up Athena and waltzed with her. 

 

Rose smiled and went to snuggle with the kids on the captain’s chair, watching them, until the song finished. 

 

“Ready to go home?” the Doctor asked, whirling away from Jackie as suddenly as he’d begun dancing with her. “Watch me land us bang on time.” He skipped about, showing off, and the TARDIS lurched into the Vortex and then into the gentlest landing Rose had ever felt. The Doctor opened the door, onto her mother’s kitchen, and grinned, pleased with himself. “There you are.”

 

Jackie ventured out, checked the date and time on the mobile she’d left on the kitchen counter. “We’ve only been gone four hours,” she noted, in amazement. 

 

“O ye of little faith,” he chided. “Plenty of time for your turkey dinner. And to pull some crackers.”

 

They pulled the crackers, sitting around the table in the ridiculous crowns, and Rose remembered her first Christmas with the Doctor, brand new in this incarnation, wearing a pink crown, then standing with him in the snow. Who would have guessed they would have ended up _here_?

 

By the time the day was over, even her Time Lord children were exhausted and cranky. The Doctor dropped them on the couch in the library, in front of _It’s a Wonderful Life_ , closed the door, and found Rose in the nursery, sorting through the toys. 

 

“They may actually fall asleep,” he said. 

 

“Astonishing,” Rose replied. 

 

The Doctor watched her, the flash of the diamond she was wearing as it caught the light. “Dance with me,” he said. 

 

“To what?” she asked. 

 

Even as she asked it, the TARDIS piped in the music. _Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas_. Rose smiled and moved into his arms and rested her head contentedly against his shoulder, satisfied to let him gently sway her to the beat. 

 

“You scared me today,” she said, after a long moment of silence. 

 

“What?” He sounded surprised. “Why?”

 

“You were trying to make it spectacular. It worried me. When you act that way…it’s only ever because you’re scared of what will happen if you stay still.”

 

She felt him kiss her hair. “We’re okay,” he murmured. 

 

“I’m not going to leave you.” She tipped her head back so she could see him. “Is this about your falling dream again?”

 

“Let’s forget about it,” he said. 

 

“Doctor…”

 

“Let’s forget about it. Just tell me.” He stopped dancing, cupped his hands around her face. “Did you have a nice Christmas?”

 

“I had the _best_ Christmas,” she said. 

 

“Good.” He brushed an achingly sweet kiss over her lips, then pulled her back into the beat with him. “That’s all I wanted.”

_[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/57087.html) _   



	12. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (13/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (13/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)     
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, OCs  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem and Athena. They're all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)   , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)   , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

I know you're all wondering: Who is this story's fabulous beta? It's [](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)   , who continues to be remarkable. Also thanks to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)  , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) \- [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) \- [Ch. 9](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html) \- [Ch. 10](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53186.html) \- [Ch. 11](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53469.html) \- [Ch. 12](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/56634.html) 

  


_Chapter Thirteen_

 

“Let’s go to the Olympics,” said the Doctor. 

 

So they did. 

 

They chose one not far in the future, where Rose would recognize almost all of the events and almost all of the nations. The Doctor used the occasion to do a lesson on the Olympics, from the ancient Greeks through modern times (“Only seems like yesterday a few naked Greek blokes were tossing a discus about, wrestling with each other in the sand, while the crowd stood around baying—Wait a second. That was Club Med,” he said. “Could we keep it child-appropriate?” asked Rose, as Brem demanded to know what Club Med was and why the men were naked). Rose dressed Athena in a little denim overall skirt, and, when the Doctor caught sight of her, he remarked, “She looks just like you did when we killed the werewolf.” This was not true. Athena strongly resembled her father. The Doctor liked to say, however, that she was her mother where it counted, in the beaming, tongue-between-her-teeth smile. 

 

But Rose got the denim overall reference and smiled at him. “Let’s go to the Olympics, Sir Doctor.”

 

“My pleasure, Dame Rose,” he rejoined, setting their coordinates. 

 

The TARDIS drifted a bit in landing, farther off than the Doctor had wanted, making it a hike to the stadium where the events were. For a moment, he hesitated. It was one of those not-quite-right landings that made him nervous.

 

“D’you think there’s something wrong?” asked Rose. 

 

The Doctor tangled his hands into his hair and took a deep breath. “No, I think I’m being paranoid.” He forced himself to smile. “I missed my mark by a few miles. It’s nothing.”

 

She answered the smile and squeezed his hand. “Yeah. No falling. We’re fine. Let’s go.”

 

But as soon as they stepped outside, Rose recoiled a bit, shivering. “Why’s it freezing? I thought you said summer Olympics. The kids aren’t dressed for this.” Not that Brem had noticed. He was already off, bounding down the street. 

 

“I did.” The Doctor was looking about him, frowning. “Maybe you ought to take the kids back inside. Brem!” he shouted. 

 

Rose had noticed the flyers tacked up, faces of smiling, missing children. A chill passed through her, as she hugged Athena closer and turned, now frantic for Brem. “Brem!” she demanded, calling down the street to him. He had paused by a front garden, where kids were playing football, watching the game longingly. “Brem, come back here right this instant!”

 

“Mum, can’t I join the game?” he begged. It was the sort of thing she normally let him do, encouraging him to make friends. 

 

The Doctor had wandered up beside her, was also frowning at the flyers. “No,” he answered, sharply, turning to look at Brem. “Listen to your mother. Come back here.”

 

Brem’s face fell. “Oh, but—”

 

“ _Now_ ,” he commanded, in that tone of voice he seldom used and so therefore was immediately obeyed. 

 

Brem sighed, dragging his feet as he walked slowly back up the street toward them. Beside her, she could feel the Doctor pulsing with leashed energy. 

 

“Hurry up,” the Doctor snapped. 

 

Brem looked at him, surprised into pausing on his route. 

 

The Doctor apparently couldn’t wait for him, began walking to meet him halfway. Suddenly he was jogging. Rose realized that something was happening, something she couldn’t comprehend and couldn’t feel, but that the Doctor was acutely afraid of, and so it terrified her. The Doctor was now in his flat-out, escape-the-bad-guys run, and he was only a stride away from being able to reach out and grab Brem, when Brem disappeared. Vanished in thin air. Rose heard someone scream, and thought it might have been her. The Doctor turned on the spot Brem had been, his coat flailing around him. 

 

“Brem!” he shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth. “Brem!”

 

The boys playing football had stopped, were now staring at the Doctor. 

 

“Brem!” he called, and she could hear the thinly veiled note of panic in his voice. “Brem, it’s not funny. If it’s a joke. Or some sort of teleport. _Brem_.”

 

The street was silent in response. Rose could hear her shuddering breaths. Athena in her arms began to cry. 

 

The Doctor pivoted on his heel, dashed up to her, grabbed her hand, and pulled her into the TARDIS. 

 

“Where is he?” she demanded. “What are you doing? You can’t—”

 

“Sit,” he bit out. “Sit here for a second and let me think. It isn’t safe out there.”

 

“We have to go back and get him!” Rose exclaimed, over Athena’s insistent crying. “We can’t just—”

 

“Of course I’m going to go get him,” he snapped. “Of course I am. I have to think for a second, I can’t just go…Your getting hysterical isn’t going to help matters.”

 

She knew he was right, and she forced down the urge to yell at him to _do_ something, watching as he walked around the console, hands tugging at his hair. She bounced Athena up and down, murmured, “Shhhhh,” against her cheek. “Daddy’s going to find him and bring him back.”

 

The Doctor turned back to her, apparently having made a decision. “I have to go figure it out. Kids have been disappearing off that street, something has to be doing it, all I have to do is figure out what.”

 

“Doctor, he _disappeared_. Right in front of us.”

 

“I know. It was ion residue. Couldn’t you smell it? Like…metal.”

 

“What uses ion residue?” asked Rose, fearfully. Brem was alone. Alone. And defenceless. And—

 

“Breathe,” the Doctor told her, suddenly, resting his hands on her waist. “Listen to me. Breathe with me.”

 

Rose realized her breaths were racing, tried to match them to his. Even Athena caught her breath and stopped crying. 

 

“Alright,” he said, his voice even and calm. “I’m going to go out there, and I’m going to bring Brem back. And you’re going to stay in here with Athena, where it’s safe.”

 

She knew it was the only course of action that made any sense, and yet the last thing she wanted to do was let him out of her sight. “I promise,” he said. “Do you hear me? I promise. We’ll be back.”

 

She nodded, swallowing all her protests. 

 

“Good,” he said, before leaning forward to give her a fierce kiss. He tugged on Athena’s ponytail, before stepping out of the TARDIS. 

 

**********************

 

His mind was racing at the speed of light. He had been stupid for letting them out of the TARDIS in the first place. It had been an imprecise landing, and he should have realized immediately that there was always a reason for those. He’d been having those dreams where Rose was ripped away from him. Maybe he’d been completely wrong. Maybe it was Brem, all along, who was the one who would disappear. Maybe he would scour this street for days, weeks, months, and never find him. Or find him and it would be too late—

 

“Stop it,” the Doctor told himself, out loud, firmly. He wasn’t helping anyone, this way. Rose was counting on him to track down Brem. He wasn’t going to do it by letting his emotions run away with him. He needed to _think_ , dammit. 

 

He forced himself to be logical. Ion residue. And it was still freezing on the street. Freezing in the middle of summer. He could see his breath. That had to mean something. It had to be connected somehow. But he wasn’t going to get anywhere just musing about it, in this abstract manner. He had to talk to someone. Kids were disappearing. He had to figure out if they had all vanished in the manner Brem had, how long ago this had all started, what unusual event had coincided with the first kids disappearing. 

 

He walked down the street, to the house where the children had been playing football, attracting Brem, and knocked firmly on the door. He received no answer. “I know you’re in there!” he called. “Now open the door.”

 

The father of the house opened it, the merest crack. “What’s your game?” he asked, in a most unwelcoming manner. 

 

“The children,” said the Doctor. “Being snatched off the street. I need to know what you know about that.”

 

“Dunno what you’re talking about,” said the man, and closed the door. 

 

The Doctor, furious, marched over to the flyers, began tearing them down and bunching them into his hands. He did not have time, he thought, to suffer these _fools_. He stormed back over the house and pounded on the door. “Open! This! Door!” he demanded. 

 

The door did open again, the man looking astonished. 

 

The Doctor flourished his hand full of flyers. “The children,” he bit out. “Being snatched from this thoroughly ordinary street. I want to know why. I can help, but I can only help if you talk to me. And if you don’t talk to me, if you don’t tell me what you know, you’re only going to get me angry. And you don’t want to see me angry. Because this—” he gestured to himself—”this is just the tip of the iceberg of my anger. So tell me. The kids. How long have they been disappearing?”

 

“It takes them when they’re playing,” said a voice behind him. 

 

The Doctor turned, facing the old woman who had spoken, walking down to the sidewalk to stand with her. “What does?”

 

“The police have knocked on every door,” she said. “No clues, no leads, nothing.”

 

“Kids wander off sometimes, alright?” said the man who had opened the door, who had apparently walked out onto the sidewalk for the conversation. “That’s what they do.”

 

“These kids aren’t wandering off,” the Doctor bit out, impatiently. “They’re vanishing. They’re disappearing. Into thin air.”

 

“Well, that’s just impossible,” sputtered the man. 

 

“He’s right,” said the old woman. “I saw it with my own eyes. There’s no need to look any further than this street. It’s right here amongst us.”

 

They had begun to attract a crowd now, neighbours drifting out of houses, huddling themselves against the cold, and they suddenly began hurling recriminations at each other, each one blaming the next, talking all at once. The Doctor began to reconsider whether or not he actually liked humans. Maybe he only liked _particular_ humans. If Brem or Athena ever started behaving like these humans were…

 

“Fingers on lips!” he shouted, obeying his own directive. There was a moment of stunned silence, as the circle of humans around him also began to obey, looking at him curiously. “Okay,” he said, keeping his voice even and calm. “This isn’t going to solve anything. Who’s going to tell me some facts? When did this start happening?”

 

The old woman raised her hand a bit, apparently seeking permission to speak. The Doctor indicated for her to go ahead. “Six days ago,” she answered. “Look around you. This was a safe street ‘til it came. It’s not a person. I’ll say it if no one else will. I don’t care who you are. Please help us.”

 

“I’m going to,” he said. “I just have to figure it out. Six days ago. What happened six days ago? Anything? Anything unusual? Something…falling from the sky maybe…? Or…?” He ran out of suggestions, his mind drawing a blank. Come on, you’re brilliant, _think_ , he told himself, but could come up with nothing. The circle of faces around him were uniformly terrified, but, at the same time, a bit soothed, because they’d ceded responsibility for the solution to him. He remained nothing but terrified. 

 

A car, driving down the street, stalled suddenly. The tarmaccers, who had been drawn into the circle and into the accusations, went scurrying off to push the car. The driver was complaining, asserting that his car was brand new, in tip-top condition, why should it suddenly stall. “They’ve all been doing it,” said one of the tarmaccers, apologetically. All of the cars stalling? thought the Doctor. But that didn’t make sense. What did stalling cars have to do with ionic power and children disappearing from reality? 

 

The neighbours had begun to disperse, moving back into their houses, casting furtive glances over their shoulders at him as if he were going to do something thoroughly remarkable. The Doctor had no idea _what_ to do. He turned in a slow circle on the sidewalk, staring up and down the street, trying to work out what he was missing. What would snatch children? If they were normal disappearances, he’d be thinking of paedophilia, but there was nothing normal about this, and he could think of no species of alien with a special fondness for children. Maybe they were the weakest of the human herd, the easiest to subdue, but if an alien was powerful enough to steal a human being out of space-time, then that alien could steal _any_ human being. There was no need to focus on the children. Why would anything focus on taking children unless… 

 

The Doctor stopped moving. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a shadowy outline in an upper window of one of the houses. A small outline. A child. Older than Brem—taller than him—but not an adult, not by any means. The Doctor didn’t dare look at the shadow squarely, because he could feel he was being watched. But he stood still, senses quivering. Because the only thing that would focus on taking children was probably another child. 

 

But a child with huge reserves of ionic power? There had to be a source for all that power. Where? 

 

The Doctor made up his mind. He was wasting time. Precious, valuable time. This wasn’t a lark. When he was off saving the world, when he left Rose with the kids in the TARDIS, he never really worried. If anything were to go wrong, the TARDIS was programmed. It would bring them back to Jackie’s, and he knew they would be safe , live out the rest of their lives there--maybe not the life Rose had planned for herself, but a life, nonetheless. Now he was worried, for a change, and it was making him anxious. He needed Brem back. And the closest thing he had to a lead to finding him was this shadowy child who was watching him. 

 

He walked briskly to the house, thought to ring the doorbell instead of banging the door down, followed it up with a brisk knock when he wasn’t answered immediately. 

 

The woman who opened it had been in the crowd of neighbours earlier, so he didn’t feel the need to be polite. 

 

“I need to talk to your daughter,” he said. 

 

“You can’t,” she frowned. 

 

“Wrong answer,” he said, and pushed past her. 

 

She turned, shocked. “You can’t just—”

 

He paused halfway up the stairs. “I can, and I’m going to. There are strange, _awful_ things going on on this street, and I think your daughter knows about them. So, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to talk to her.”

 

The poor woman looked troubled, and he paused for just a moment to see what she would say. “Can you help her?” she asked, fearfully. 

 

Help her, he thought. They all wanted help. So much help, all the time. He didn’t want to help her. He just wanted his son back. The same way, he thought, this woman probably wanted her daughter back. He softened a bit, tried to smile reassuringly. “Yes, I can.”

 

“She stays in her room, most of the time,” said the mother. “I try talking to her, but it’s like…trying to speak to a brick wall. She gives me nothing, just…asks to be left alone.”

 

The Doctor didn’t really care about any of this, but he forced himself to listen. Rose would listen, Rose would ask questions, it was how you figured out what was going on, instead of rushing headlong. “What’s your daughter’s name?” he asked. 

 

“Chloe,” she said, smiling a bit. 

 

“Right. What about Chloe’s dad?”

 

“Chloe’s dad died a year ago.”

 

He nodded briefly. “Wellll. Let’s go say hi to Chloe.”

 

He turned to continue ascending the staircase, pausing when she said, “I should check on her first. Make sure she’s not asleep.”

 

The Doctor turned toward her. “And what’s your name?”

 

“Trish,” she answered. 

 

“Why are you afraid of her, Trish?”

 

“You should know before you see her that she’s really a great kid.”

 

No, thought the Doctor. _I_ have a great kid. _You_ have the kid who stole my great kid. “I’m sure she is,” he said, not meaning a word of it. 

 

“She’s never been in trouble at school. You should see her report from last year. A’s and B’s. She’s in the choir. I want you to know these things before you see her. Because right now she’s not herself.”

 

He nodded once, briefly, then continued up the stairs, finding Chloe’s room by instinct. He didn’t knock, or wait to be invited in, or anything like that. He opened the door and walked right in, eyes sweeping over the room. He registered the little girl who turned in her seat at her desk as he entered, staring at him, even as he focused on the drawings, plastered all over the room. “I’m the Doctor,” he said, automatically, walking over to the wall of drawings.

 

“I’m Chloe Webber,” she answered, although he didn’t hear her. 

 

His eyes had focused on the drawing of what was very clearly Brem, hair sticking up every which way, threadbare green jumper that he still refused to get rid of. Cold settled in him, as he began piecing things together. Snatched out of time and space, by ionic power, and imprisoned in a _drawing_. His hands fisted in his jacket pockets, and at that moment he felt every inch of his Oncoming Storm-ness. He was well aware that he could kill Chloe Webber. It was the first time, in a very, very long time, that he realized that he was still the same man who had steeled himself and pressed the button and sent the Daleks out of existence, watching Gallifrey burn to do it. He’d do it all over again—he’d do _worse_ —if it would teach every species in the universe that Rose, Brem, and Athena Tyler were not to be touched, that not a hair on their heads was to be harmed, for fear of his wrath. 

 

The Doctor forced himself to be calm. Lashing out at Chloe Webber wasn’t going to get Brem out of the drawing. He needed Chloe to get that accomplished. He couldn’t feel Brem—that, indeed, had been the most panicking detail when Brem had disappeared in front of him, the fact that he could feel him _nowhere_ , and he was sure it was the reason why Athena had begun crying—but he didn’t know if Brem might be able to feel him. He was, after all, a stronger telepathic presence than Brem was. He focused on the drawing and sent him soothing thoughts, the way he used to when he had still been in Rose’s womb. _I’m coming_ , he promised. _I’ll get you out of there_. 

 

He turned to Chloe, done with the preamble. “That’s my son.” He pointed at the drawing. “And however you got him into that drawing, I want you to get him out of it.”

 

“What are you talking about?” asked Trish. “How could your son be in that drawing? You’re not making any sense. I think I want you to get out of my house.”

 

“Chloe has a power,” the Doctor snapped, without taking his eyes off the little girl. “She’s using it to snatch the kids. You’ve seen the drawings move, I know you have, out of the corner of your eye, and you dismissed it, because that’s what you do when you see something you can’t possibly explain. And if anyone mentions it, you get angry.”

 

“She’s a child!” protested Trish. 

 

“And you’re terrified of her. And there’s no one to turn to, because who’s going to believe the things you see out of the corner of your eye? No one. Except me.” 

 

“Who are you?” asked Trish. 

 

There were many ways he could answer that question. He was the Doctor, the Oncoming Storm, the last creature to remember what Gallifrey had looked like, the highest authority in the universe, the being that could feel the turning of the Earth and the hurtling through space, fire and rage and ice and the storm in the heart of the sun. And he found himself answering—and he didn’t know where this came from, what kinder instinct had decided to raise its head—but he looked at Trish, her eyes wide and full of fear, and he found himself saying, “I’m help.”

 

He looked back at Chloe. “I know you’re using ionic power. I know you’re using it to stick them in some kind of ionic holding pen. But how? How can you be doing any of this? Where are you getting the power from?”

 

Chloe looked at him, belligerent and silent. He frowned, crouched down and placed his hands on either side of her head. He hated doing this, but he did it anyway, closed his eyes and pushed his way underneath her consciousness, switching her off like a light bulb. She went limp under him, and he lifted her, carried her to her bed. 

 

“What have you done to her?” shrieked Trish. 

 

“Shh!” he commanded, sharply, glaring in her direction. 

 

“I want Chloe!” said Chloe, in a voice very much not her own. 

 

The Doctor knitted his eyebrows together, trying to figure this out. “Who are you?”

 

“I want Chloe Webber,” insisted the voice, fist connecting with the mattress in frustration. 

 

“What have you done to my little girl?” asked Trish. 

 

The Doctor ignored her. “I’m speaking to you,” he said, “the entity that is using this human child. I request _parlez_ in compliance with the Shadow Proclamation.”

 

“I don’t care about _parlezes_.”

 

“What do you care about?”

 

“I want my friends.”

 

And the Doctor suddenly realized that, whatever it was possessing Chloe Webber, they were, at that moment, a great deal alike. “What do you care about?” someone could have asked him. And he would have said, “I want my son.” He recognized the root of the entire problem. “You’re lonely,” he said, and sighed. If there was anything in the world he could understand… “I know. Identify yourself.”

 

“I am many. I travel with my brothers and sisters. An endless journey. A thousand of your lifetimes. But I am alone. I hate it. It’s not fair. I hate it!”

 

He understood that. All of that. He could feel all of those emotions as vividly as he had on the day he’d met Rose, at the very depths of everything. “Name yourself,” he said, sharply, trying to steel himself. 

 

“Isolus.”

 

And everything made sense. “You’re Isolus. Of course.” He teased the rest of the story out of her, all of it becoming clear, exactly what he had to do to get Brem back. 

 

The Doctor went back to the TARDIS. 

_[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/59445.html) _   



	13. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (14/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (14/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)     
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, OCs  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem and Athena. They're all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)   , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)   , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

[](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)   is currently on Cloud Nine, because her beloved Caps are in the playoffs. But when she's here on Earth she's my incomparable beta. Also thanks to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)  , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) \- [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) \- [Ch. 9](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html) \- [Ch. 10](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53186.html) \- [Ch. 11](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53469.html) \- [Ch. 12](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/56634.html) \- [Ch. 13](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/57087.html)

_Chapter Fourteen_

“Where’s Brem?” Rose asked, anxiously, as soon as he entered. 

The Doctor was grim as he told her the truth. “He’s trapped in a drawing.”

“Trapped in a _drawing_?” Rose repeated. “How can that be?”

“There’s an Isolus, possessing this little human girl called Chloe Webber, using ionic power to trap people in drawings. Fell to Earth about six days ago.”

Rose struggled to understand, watching him as he shed his coat, moved around the console, assembling materials. “What’s an Isolus?”

The Doctor explained, “The Isolus mother drifts in deep space. She jettisons millions of Isolus spores. Her children. The Isolus are empathic beings of intense emotion. When they’re cast off from their mother their empathic link—their… _need_ for each other—is what sustains them. They _need_ to be together. They cannot be alone.”

“The Isolus children travel,” continued the Doctor, finding it soothing to speak about something he understood, to be lecturing, to have a name to his problem, “each inside a pod. They ride the heat and energy of solar tides. It takes thousands and thousands of years for them to grow up.” He thought of it, thousands of years, just floating through space. He’d done it, for a short period of time, on his own, and thought he’d go mad with boredom. “While they travel they play games. They use their ionic power literally to create make-believe worlds for them to play in. In-flight entertainment. It helps keep them happy. While they’re happy they can feed off each other’s love. Without it, they’re lost.” 

“Alright,” said Rose. “I get that. And they live on Earth?”

“No. They were too close. There was a solar flare from your sun. It would have made a tidal wave of solar energy that scattered the Isolus pods. This Isolus fell to Earth. Its pod crashed. Its brothers and sisters are still up there and it can’t reach them. It is…very alone.”

Rose stared at him. “You sound like you’re on its side.”

The Doctor sat on the captain’s chair, surrounded by his materials, as he began to assemble something. “I know what it’s like to travel a long way on your own. I sympathize, that’s all.”

“It _stole_ our _child_ ,” Rose reminded him. 

“I understand that. And I’m going to get him back. But the Isolus is just a child itself. It’s exactly what you’re always so worried Brem is going to be: just a lonely kid.”

“But Brem would never go around stealing people from reality.”

“No.” The Doctor recalled the frightening capability of his rage, as he’d stared at Brem’s drawing. “Brem could do much worse.”

Rose blinked. “What’s that mean?”

The Doctor shook his device a bit, looking pleased. “I think we’re there.” He jumped up from the seat, moving around the console. “Fear. Loneliness. They’re the big ones, Rose. Some of the most terrible acts ever committed have been inspired by them. We’re not dealing with something that wants to conquer or destroy. There’s a lot of things you need to get across this universe: warp drive, wormhole refractors. You know the thing you need most of all?”

Rose stared at him. “What?”

“You know, because you’re the one who taught me it was the most important thing in the first place. You need a hand to hold.” 

There was a moment of silence. “Alright,” she allowed. She still didn’t understand this Isolus, and definitely wasn’t going to forgive it, but she supposed she could understand why the Doctor identified with it. “D’you have a plan for getting Brem back?”

“Of course I do. We need to find the Isolus pod.” He moved over to the monitor, began typing away at it. 

“You said it crashed,” she pointed out. “Won’t it be destroyed?”

“It’s been sucking in all the heat it can, hopefully that should keep it in a fit state to launch. The pod needs heat, it would have been attracted to heat when it crashed. It must be close, it should have a weak energy signature the TARDIS can trace. Once we find it, then we can send the Isolus off.”

“That’ll get Brem back?”

“Yes.” He nodded. “It’ll release the ionic power holding him into the drawing, and he’ll come back to us.” He met her eyes. “Safe and sound. Good as new. I promise. How’re you doing, Athena?” He smoothed his hand over Athena’s tumbled hair. She looked at him with wide, heartbroken eyes. He knew she was feeling a huge hole inside of her where Brem usually was, and he tried to send her comforting thoughts. 

The monitor started beeping, and the Doctor looked at it. “It’s the pod!” he exclaimed, joyfully. “It is in the street.”

“How come no one’s seen it?”

“It’s small. About two inches across, dull gray, like a gull’s egg. Very light.”

“And you find it, and you give it back to the Isolus?”

“Not quite that simple.” He was pulling on his coat now. “I’ve got to fire it up first.”

Rose set Athena on a blanket on the floor, walking over to stand by him. “And how d’you do that? More heat?”

He shook his head. “Has to be more than heat. Love.”

She blinked. “Love?”

“Haven’t you been listening? The Isolus are empathic. They survive on love.”

“You mean, even more than the rest of us?”

The Doctor paused by the TARDIS door and looked at her, then smiled crookedly. “Yes,” he said. “I won’t be long. Next time I come back I’ll have Brem.” He winked at her. 

She went to the door, standing in it as he walked confidently down the street, holding the strange device he’d made. And then, abruptly, in the blink of an eye, he was gone. The device crashed to the street, smashing into pieces. 

Rose didn’t think, as she darted out of the TARDIS, rushed to where the Doctor had been. She could smell what he’d been talking about, a smell like a burnt fuse plug that made her wrinkle her nose. She knew what had happened, but how was she going to fix it?

She turned back to the TARDIS. First things first. She had to tuck Athena safely in the nursery. 

But the TARDIS was no longer there, apparently having been snatched out of space-time as well. 

Rose stood for a second, blinking, in the middle of the street. She had suddenly lost everything she had ever wanted in the world. Oh, that…that was… _unacceptable_. 

She turned on her heel, running down the street. She ran into a woman taking her trash out, demanded, “Where does Chloe Webber live?” When the woman stammered at her in surprised, she shouted, “ _Which house_?”

The woman pointed, and Rose sprinted to it, pounding on the door. A woman opened it, looked at her in surprise. “Who—” she began. 

“Where is she? Chloe!” she called, taking the stairs two at a time and pushing open the first door she found. The little girl stared up at her, and Rose looked over her shoulder, at the drawing of a smiling Doctor, all pin-striped suit and dramatic coat, standing next to the TARDIS. “Oh, big mistake,” Rose bit out. “Huge. He was all sympathetic. He identified with you. You would have been much better off dealing with him, because with me you’re just going to get a furious wife and mother who’s out for blood. I don’t give a damn about this family you’re missing. You give _my_ family back to me.”

“No,” responded Chloe Webber. 

Rose grabbed onto her shoulders and shook her a bit. “ _Bring. Them. Back._ ”

“Leave me alone,” said Chloe, squirming. 

“What are you doing to her?” Chloe’s mother pulled Rose away from her. “Get off her. Who do you think you are?”

Rose shrugged the woman’s touch off of her, tried to calm down. The Doctor had had a plan. A plan that had made sense, that was going to get her a lot farther than yelling at a stubborn, little girl. Find the pod. Find the pod that had been drawn to heat and launch it. 

She turned to the mother, pointing at Chloe. “Watch her. Don’t take your eyes off her. I need to go and find the pod.”

She turned, racing out of the house and onto the street. Heat. Heat. Six days ago. Heat. She circled, trying to focus, to think like the Doctor, to see all the possibilities of the situation. Behind her, a car stalled on the street, and she glanced over her shoulder, watching the tarmaccers run out to push out. Tarmaccers. Hot tar. Things clicked in her head. 

She ran out to the street. “Six days ago,” she gasped, realizing she was short of breath, from adrenaline, or from lack of practice at this, or something. “Were you filling potholes? Six days ago? With the hot tar?”

They looked at her as if she were crazy, and then one said, “Yeah. This one here, as a matter of fact. Don’t know why the bloody thing keeps stalling the cars.”

“Heat. Hot tar.” Rose stared at the pothole, and then took off for the van the tarmaccers had been using, which was standing open, revealing the object of her desire. 

“Oi!” one of the tarmaccers called after her, as she lifted herself into the back of the van. “That’s a Council van.” Rose grabbed the pickaxe, leaping lightly down. “You’ve just removed a Council axe from a Council van,” protested the tarmaccer as Rose got into position, lifting the pickaxe over her head. “Put it back. No, no, wait, that’s not a Council axe, that’s my axe. Give it back.”

Rose heaved the pickaxe with all her might into the tar, grunting as she did so. 

“Wait!” shouted the tarmaccer. “No! No! You stop! You just took a Council axe, from a Council van, and now you’re digging up a Council road!”

Rose ignored him, focusing on swinging the axe, watching the tar come apart under her feet. 

“I’m reporting you to the Council!” he threatened. 

“Oh, bloody hell,” she snapped. “Do whatever you want.” She dropped to her knees, hands digging through the tar. Gull’s egg, he’d said. Gull’s egg. Her hands fastened around it and she pulled it into her grasp in amazement. “It went for the hottest thing in the street,” she breathed, and then grinned at the tarmaccer. “Your tar!” She couldn’t help laughing with relief. Here it was, in her hands. The Doctor and Brem and Athena, all back, safe and sound. 

The tarmaccer looked confused. “What is it?”

“It’s a spaceship.” Rose felt her sense of humour return, buoyant and joyful. “Not a council spaceship, I’m afraid.” Cradling the precious pod, she raced back to the Webbers’, shouting, “I found it!” She wasn’t sure what to do with it now. Maybe the Isolus would just hop on board. But she’d at least found it. 

She raced up the stairs, taking them, as she had previously, two at a time, bursting into Chloe’s room. “I found it!” she exclaimed. “I’ve got your ship, we can send you home!”

“The pod is dead,” Chloe told her, frowning. 

“All it needs is heat,” Rose protested, desperately. 

“It needs more than heat,” Chloe responded. 

And Rose remembered the Doctor telling her. _Love_. How the hell was she going to figure out how to power the pod with love? She stared at his drawing, on the desk where she’d left it. She loved _him_. And Brem. And Athena. She was desperate with love for them. How could that not be enough?

She blinked. The drawing had changed. The Doctor was pointing. At a drawing of the Olympic torch. More than heat, she thought. Love. 

A television she had not even realized was on suddenly invaded her consciousness. “It’s a beacon of love,” said the announcer, and Rose stared at the torch on the screen. She looked at Chloe Webber’s mother. “Is the torch going by here?”

“Right by here. At the end of the street. Why?”

“I know how to charge up the pod.” Rose pushed past her, out onto the street. A crowd had gathered, watching as the torch began to make its journey past the street. Rose struggled through the crowd, clutching the tiny spaceship, desperate to get close. A policeman stopped her, babbling something at her, something she couldn’t comprehend, because she was so desperate to get the pod to the torch that she did the only thing she could think to do, pulling her hand back and flinging the pod in the direction of the torch, praying it would be enough. 

But she couldn’t tell. She couldn’t tell if anything had happened at all. She couldn’t tell if she’d done it correctly, if she’d saved the world, or if she’d failed miserably. She stood, still and drained, staring after the torch, as the crowd began to disperse. And then a voice cried, “Mum!”

Even as she turned in its direction, Brem barrelled into her, and Rose grabbed him to her, hugging him as tightly as she could. She dropped to the concrete, the better to cuddle him, and all around them the crowd was frowning as they picked their ways around them, but Rose didn’t notice, because it was Brem burrowing into her, with his little boy smell, and his messy hair, and his ridiculous jumper. 

“Oh, Brem,” she sighed, running her hands over him to verify he was in one piece. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Mum,” he said, muffled against her shoulder. 

“We were so worried,” she whispered, kissing his hair. “So worried.”

“I’m fine,” he said again. 

Rose gave him one last squeeze, then pushed him away a bit, to smile at him. “Come on. Let’s go find your father and sister.”

**********************

The TARDIS was where they’d left it, and, when they walked in, Athena was standing in the control room, reaching up and pressing buttons on the console. She turned guiltily as the door opened, and then her face lit up as she exclaimed, “Brem!”

He grinned. “Hi, Theenie.”

“Are you alright?” she said, her tiny features puckered in concern. 

“Oh, I’m fine,” said Brem, importantly, enjoying the attention. 

Rose looked around the control room. “Where’s your father?” she asked Athena. 

Athena looked at her, surprised. “He’s not here.”

Rose, concerned now, opened the TARDIS door, looked out at the crowd on the street. None of whom were her Doctor. 

“He’s alright,” said Brem. 

She looked down at him. “How do you know that?”

“I can feel him. There’s something he has to take care of, and then he’ll be home, but I can tell he’s alright. Can’t you tell, Theenie?” He looked at Athena for verification. 

Athena nodded. 

“What do you mean, ‘something he has to take care of’? Where’s he gone?”

Brem shrugged. “Dunno. Can we go out there?” He was looking beyond his mother, at the party that was now underway on the street. 

She looked as well. The place was crowded with children. She thought of the havoc the Isolus had wreaked because it had been lonely, and smiled. “Sure. Let’s go.” She took Athena’s hand to lead her. “Your father will find us. You’re staying close to me, though.”

Brem, uncharacteristically, agreed to this directive, and Rose thought he must have been more terrified than he was letting on. 

They wandered through the street, laughing a bit with people they met, enjoying the atmosphere. There was food and drink, and Rose amused the kids by giving them cupcakes with edible ball bearings, gauging their reactions. 

“I wonder,” Brem mused, “if there’s any other species in the universe that has thought to make edible ball bearings. I’ll have to ask Dad.”

They found him on the outskirts of the party, his back to them, his hands in his pockets. He was standing still, and Rose had the impression he was looking for them in the crowd of people. 

“Go ahead,” she whispered at Brem. “Call him.”

“Dad,” he said, and the Doctor turned. 

For a moment he didn’t react. Then his face split in a grin of delight that turned into a full-fledged, boisterous laugh, as he walked over to them and crouched before Brem. “Oh, Brem,” he said, tousling his hair, drinking in the sight of him. 

Brem smiled crookedly before launching himself into his father’s arms. The Doctor closed his eyes and caught him to him. 

“I knew you’d save me,” Brem mumbled against him. “I _knew_ it.”

“Oh, Brem, always,” he sighed. “I will always save you.”

Brem pulled back, delighted. He looked carefree, as if nothing interesting had happened at all that day. “They’re playing a game,” he said, gesturing to a group of children. “Can I go play?”

“Tag,” said Rose. “It’s called tag. You can go, but watch your sister.”

Brem grabbed Athena’s hand, skipping over to where the game was in progress. 

The Doctor and Rose looked at each other for a second, before Rose wrapped her arms about him. 

“Oh, well done, you,” the Doctor said, into her hair. 

“That was some good, old-fashioned teamwork there,” she noted. 

“I was so proud of you.”

“Can you feel proud when you’re trapped in a drawing?”

“You can when your wife is behaving so brilliantly.” He drew back a bit, grinning. “Isn’t that what you told Chloe Webber? That you were a wife and mother who was out for blood?”

Rose blushed. “I didn’t think you could hear me,” she mumbled. “And I couldn’t think what else to say. I mean, to get the point across—”

“It’s fine,” he said. 

The moment seemed heavy, so she cleared her throat and changed the subject. “Where’ve you been?”

“Oh, had a little thing to take care of,” he said, nonchalantly. “Had to go light the Olympic torch.”

“Had to go…” Rose trailed off, shaking her head. “Of course you did. Well, you should have stopped by to tell me you were okay first. I thought I’d lost you.”

He shook his head. “Not ever. Definitely not on a night like this.” He looked toward Brem, his expression soft and even a bit amazed, like he couldn’t believe their good luck. She wondered if he had doubted they would get him back, if he had been pretending confidence for her benefit. “This is a night for lost things being found.”

There was a sudden loud boom. Rose jumped in his arms, looking up as sparks of fireworks showered over the sky. 

“Oh, top banana,” said the Doctor, pleased, as he tipped his head back to look up at them. 

Athena came running toward them, clearly startled by the fireworks, and Rose crouched to sweep her up. 

“Haven’t we ever showed you fireworks before, princess?” the Doctor asked her. 

Athena, astonished, looked up into the sky and shook her head slowly. The Doctor took her out of Rose’s arms. “Aren’t they beautiful?” he said to her. “Brem!” he called over his shoulder, wanting his entire family, one cohesive unit. “Come watch the fireworks with us.” 

He settled them in a front garden, huddled on top of each other in a happy jumble. The Doctor smiled, as Rose leaned back against him, warm and so very familiar. Athena was oohing and aahing and clapping her hands, plainly enchanted by the sight. Brem was asking a million questions. “Dad, why’s that one green? Why’s that one red? And I meant to ask you about the edible ball bearings.”

The Doctor didn’t really answer him, instead listened to the sound of his voice and nuzzled behind Rose’s ear as she snuggled closer to him. 

The chill came from nowhere, just as he was thinking that it was impossible for him to be any happier than he was at that moment. He shivered with it, as it passed over him. 

Rose tipped her head back to look up at him, curious. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah.” He looked down at her, managed to smile. 

  
But there was something in the air. Something was coming. A storm was approaching. 

 _[Next Chapter  
](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/60277.html)_  



	14. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (15/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (15/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)     
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, Jackie, Pete, Mickey, OCs  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem and Athena. They're all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – In which...Well. Yes. Sorry to do this to you, but the rest of my week looked booked from this point, so you're getting two consecutive posts and then I'm leaving you with this for a bit...

The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)   , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)   , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

Thanks to my beta of awesome, jlrpuck, currently somewhere in the air en route to Kansas City. Many thanks also to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and  [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[ **bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)  , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) \- [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) \- [Ch. 9](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html) \- [Ch. 10](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53186.html) \- [Ch. 11](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53469.html) \- [Ch. 12](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/56634.html) \- [Ch. 13](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/57087.html) - [Ch. 14](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/59445.html)

  


_Chapter Fifteen_

 

He kept them in the Vortex, until Rose and the children began complaining about the lack of milk. It was unusual for him to keep them so long without a stop at some planet or other, and he wondered if Rose was suspicious, if Rose knew that he was scared. If she didn’t suspect at that point, she must have suspected when he suggested they visit her mother while they pick up milk. Relations with Jackie may be at an all-time high, but he still never asked that they stop and visit her. 

 

But if Rose was suspicious, she let it slide. 

 

He went to Earth, to Jackie’s, because it was the safest place he could think of for them. Whatever this storm was, gathering, unbalancing the air around him, Rose and the kids would surely be safe at Jackie’s. He needed to go out, to confront this storm, to stop behaving like a bloody coward and just get it over with, but in the meantime, he thought, he’d just get his little family settled, safe and sound, before trying to persuade Rose to let him go. 

 

He went to Jackie’s to keep them safe, and he had never been so wrong in his life. Not in 900 years of existence--and he had been spectacularly wrong at points of that 900-year existence. But everything paled in comparison to his wrongness at that moment. 

 

The TARDIS missed Jackie’s flat, landing them in a playground a short distance away, and that should have raised red flags. It had been years, since before Rose had become pregnant with Brem, since he had missed landing the TARDIS in Jackie’s flat. But it didn’t alarm him, because Brem and Athena giggled their way through the playground, and he had actually thought, at the time, that it had been a gift from the TARDIS, letting the kids play a bit, happy and carefree. 

 

And by the time he’d realized that things were a mess, here on this Earth, he was trapped. There was a huge row with Rose. He had to figure out where the ghosts were coming from, of course he did, if he didn’t the entire planet would possibly explode, but he wanted Rose and the children in Jackie’s flat, where it was safe. Rose did not think Jackie’s flat was anything like safe, had insisted on coming with him in the TARDIS, dragging her mother along—and Rose had turned out to be right about that, although it had not looked that way when he had been standing in the TARDIS staring at a great deal of guns on the monitor. 

 

And then there had been another row, even fiercer, when he insisted he had to leave the TARDIS, guns and all. By this point he was starting to think that they should have locked the children in the nursery, before having a furious argument about how he never carried any weapons and was going to get himself regenerated. When he flung open the door and stalked out to face the guns, he was still angry with Rose. 

 

Even at that point, though, he hadn’t realized how bad things were. The true force of it didn’t hit him until they knew all about Rose. Whatever this Torchwood place was—the house with Rose? So long ago? Really?—they were not to be underestimated. He grabbed Jackie instead of Rose, but there was no time for silent communication. It was the best improvisation he could think of, but he couldn’t get more than that across to Rose. He tried going through the children. They knew about Rose, but they didn’t seem to know that there were Time Lord kids running around. _Tell Mum to keep you hidden. Make sure she keeps you hidden._ Even as he was led all about Torchwood, confronting Void ships, realizing how truly disastrous this situation was, he was constantly broadcasting to the kids. 

 

And it all seemed familiar. He stood in the lever room, hands in his pockets, and frowned, trying to figure out why it seemed so familiar. Had he been there in one of his other incarnations? His UNIT days, perhaps?

 

“She one of yours?” Yvonne Hartman asked, interrupting his musings as he propped himself against her office door and stared at the stark white lever room. 

 

“What?” The Doctor looked back at her. Jackie was looking at Yvonne’s computer monitor. Yvonne herself was gesturing to it. The Doctor walked over to it and frowned. Rose was on the monitor, trying to make herself cute with a little wave. 

 

“Unfortunately, yes,” he said. 

 

Rose grinned, as if she were the most adorable thing in the universe. Which she wasn’t right at that moment, he thought. “I don’t always listen to him,” she said. “Just sometimes.”

 

He caught the code. The kids were safe. Probably locked in the nursery, and the TARDIS wouldn’t let them leave until he or Rose unlocked it. Why _she_ had left the TARDIS was another matter entirely, and they were most assuredly going to have a discussion about that after he’d sorted all this. 

 

He was still, at that point, thinking it could be sorted. But by the time he’d encountered the Cybermen, and the parallel worlds, and the—oh, not _again_ —Daleks, by the time he’d stood at a window in Canary Wharf and watched a Dalek prison ship open in the London sky, he’d recognized that he was done. There was no getting out of this one. He needed to open the Void. He needed the two levers in the room behind him to do it. 

 

And there was only one of him. 

 

“The children,” Rose murmured, beside him suddenly, and he’d forgotten she was there. “They’ll be safe in the TARDIS?”

 

“Yeah, they’ll be…” Pete was talking about going back to the parallel world, taking Jackie with him, and the Doctor suddenly realized. The parallel world. Yes. They should all go to the parallel world. If he was going to be sucked into the Void, he wasn’t going to leave Rose alone on this Earth. She would be with her mother; with a rich, powerful father figure who could protect her unusual children; yes, even with Mickey, a friend and a confidante, the sort of person she still lacked on this planet, even after their efforts to build up friendships. He made his decision in a heartbeat. “Get the children.”

 

“What?”

 

He turned to look at her. “Get the children. Get them now. We need them here, in this room, now. Go.”

 

She was used to trusting him, completely, when he spoke in that quick-or-the-world-ends tone of voice, and she raced off, fishing for the chain she wore her TARDIS key on. 

 

“It’s safe,” Pete was saying to Jackie, “just as soon as the Doctor closes the breach. Doctor?”

 

“Oh, I’m ready,” he said, grim with determination. “We just have to wait for Rose and the children before you go.”

 

“Go?” echoed Jackie. “I’m not going to this parallel universe. I’m not leaving you and Rose and the kids.”

 

“Kids?” said Mickey, who clearly had not anticipated this particular development, and the Doctor would have enjoyed that, if he wasn’t busy trying to give himself the best fighting chance at getting both levers up before he was sucked into the Void. 

 

“You’re not leaving Rose and the kids,” he said, not looking up from his typing. “They’re going with you.”

 

“We’re what?” said Rose, and he couldn’t look at her, could not bear to look at her. He knew exactly how she would look, in that soft blue sweater she was wearing, Athena on her hip, her hair falling out of its elastic as it always was, clutching Brem’s hand, Brem in that daft green jumper and probably holding his sonic screwdriver in case he was needed. He _knew_ these things, elementally, and the only thing that made him able to do this at all was the knowledge that he wasn’t going to have to live with himself after this. Not really. There was Nothing in the Void. 

 

“I don’t have time to explain,” he clipped out, grabbing some of those absurd yellow buttons from Pete and throwing one over Rose’s head. He wasn’t sure how they worked, so he tossed one over Athena and Brem for good measure, being careful not to look at any of them as he did so. 

 

“You’re going to make time to explain,” she said. “We’re not leaving you. Leaving you to go where?”

 

“To Pete’s world,” he said. “We should call it that. Pete’s world.”

 

“And where will you be?”

 

“I’ll be here. I’ve got to open the Void. Someone’s got to be here to open the Void.”

 

“Okay,” said Rose, and oh, she _would_ argue with him, but did she have to? “So we’ll all stay here while you open the Void.”

 

“You can’t.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“We don’t have time—” Pete began.

 

“Shut up,” Rose snapped at him. “Why not?” she demanded of the Doctor. 

 

He sighed, pushed the 3-D glasses onto her face, then picked her hand up and waved it in front of her eyes. 

 

“What is it?” she asked, after a second.

 

“Void stuff,” he said. “The Daleks and the Cybermen are covered in it. Once I open the Void, they’ll be pulled right in.” He paused. “But so will you.”

 

“You’re covered in it, too,” she said, staring at him. “You’ll get pulled in.” For a second, their eyes met, Rose’s behind the 3-D glasses before she threw them off. “Doctor—”

 

“I’ve got these,” he said, pushing away from her with effort, indicating his magnaclamps. “I’ll just hold on, it’ll be fine.”

 

“We’re supposed to go,” Rose clarified, flatly, and he could the fury under her tone.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“To another world and then it gets sealed off.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Forever?”

 

That he couldn’t answer. He couldn’t even try. 

 

Rose almost laughed. “You daft…Well, that’s never gonna happen.”

 

“Dad,” said Brem, in the very smallest of voices, and the Doctor wished fervently that he were in the Void already. 

 

“We don’t have time to argue,” Pete said. “The plan works.”

 

“The plan _works_?” shrieked Rose. “The plan does anything but work! We’re not leaving without him.”

 

“I’m not leaving without them,” said Jackie.

 

“Oh, my God,” said Pete. “We’re going.”

 

“You’ve lost your mind,” Rose shouted at the Doctor. “And you know you have, which is why you can’t look me in the eye while you send me away—”

 

He moved, so quickly he startled himself, so quickly he didn’t even know he was going to do it until it was done, but he pressed, smartly, on Rose’s yellow button. Her mouth was an “oh” of shock as she disappeared, and he did look her in the eye, because if he was going to never see her again, then he wanted to remember how beautiful she was. And the tableau she presented was exactly as he had thought, except that Brem was holding Madrid. Good lad, Brem, he thought, proudly, and winked at the boy just before he faded from sight. 

 

The cold, white room was startlingly silent. Outside, the battle was raging, but there, in the white lever room, completely alone, the Doctor wondered what the point of any of it was. Open the Void, he thought. Open the Void and save the bloody planet and just _end_ it. 

 

“I think this is the on switch,” said Rose’s voice, and he turned from the monitor. 

 

There she was, still holding both children, and still looking furious. 

 

He was furious, too. “What are you doing?”

 

She pulled off her yellow button, pulled them off the children. “Not in front of the kids.”

 

“Listen to me,” he snapped out. “Everyone you love is in _that_ universe. And once the breach is closed, that’s it. You’ll never see them again.”

 

“You _bloody, stupid, arrogant bastard_. How can you possibly stand there and tell me that everything I love is anywhere but in this room?” Silence rang around the room after her shout. “Not in front of the kids,” she said, breathing heavily with anger. 

 

His eyes flickered to the kids, back to Rose. Plan B, he thought. “Fine. Take them back to the TARDIS. Stay there. We’ll have it out once I’m done here.” He turned from them, back to the monitors. “The TARDIS’ll be fine, she won’t budge an inch. You’ll be perfectly safe in there.” His voice was dull. He did not look up at her, as he heard her exit with the kids. 

 

And then, for just a moment—one precious moment that he luxuriously allowed himself and gave Rose far too much time—he braced his arms on the table and closed his eyes and breathed. Hard. Ragged. He was a mess, he thought. He was an absolute _mess_. This was why they had to be in the other universe. Because he was never going to be able to do this knowing they were just in the other room, that he could go back to their marvellous life. Earth would be destroyed, the Daleks and Cybermen would see to that, but wasn’t it worth it? The fate of one tiny, insignificant planet… Who cared about Earth, if he was off on the other side of the universe, watching Rose laugh as she tried to teach the kids to sing _Do Re Mi_?

 

Pull yourself together, he told himself, sharply, opening his eyes and shaking his head briskly to try to focus. 

 

And then Rose said, “You can’t do this, can you?”

 

He misunderstood her for a moment. “I’ll do it.”

 

“You’ll do it and it’ll kill you. Because there are two levers. To open the Void, fully, you’ll need them both. But you’ll never be able to cross the room in time. You’ll never be able to brace yourself properly. You’ll be pulled into the Void. That’s why you were sending us away. You can’t do this.”

 

He ruffled his hair, considering, and then walked over to her. “You should go, Rose. Take the kids, and go. Pete will protect them, he’ll do it for Jackie. You’ll have Mickey…”

 

She shook her head. “You’re not understanding. You can’t do this alone. But you have never been alone.” She leaned forward and kissed him, her taste familiar as it flooded his being. Then she pulled back, combing her fingers through his hair. “Tell me what I have to do.”

 

“Rose…”

 

“Tell me. Push up the lever and then hang on? I can do it. I’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. When we’re done, we’ll take the kids to see ice cream being invented.”

 

He couldn’t do it. He wanted to. He wanted to send her away, but he couldn’t. He’d done it once that day. He couldn’t do it again. He _wanted_ this life. He just _wanted_ it. He reached for her and pulled her into a suffocating hug, burying his face into that soft, blue sweater. “Yeah,” he mumbled. “Yeah.”

 

The building actually shook, which registered with him enough to push her away. “We have to do this now. Push up the lever. Then hang on.”

 

He looked over at her as they got into position. She smiled at him, and he knew she was reassuring him, and the _idea_ , of _her_ reassuring _him_ … He loved her. He’d known it for years, while he’d been pretending not to know it, not to know what word to put to it. But he loved her, and suddenly wanted to say it. 

 

“Ready?” she said. “On three.”

 

He wanted to protest. _I’m not ready. I have something I need to say_.

 

“One,” she said. “Two.”

 

He moved, pushing the lever up and grabbing onto the magnaclamp, and really, it was working gloriously. He laughed with delight, as he looked over at Rose. They would be fine, he thought. They were really, really, really going to be—

 

There was a sudden showering of sparks from Rose’s lever. “Offline,” the computer informed them, helpfully. The delight faded from his face, as he met Rose’s eyes. Don’t, he wanted to tell her, even as she dropped to the lever, struggling to push it back into its upright position. She was fighting against the pull of the Void to do it, and he could tell the effort it was taking her. Don’t, he wanted to plead with her, even as she scrambled to find purchase on the lever. 

 

“Hold on,” he shouted at her, as the Void whipped at her clothing and hair. “Hold on,” he begged, as she slipped, as her fingers clawed frantically, as she fell, plummeting. 

 

“No!” he shouted. “No!” As if that were going to do anything at all. He couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, was frozen into place as he watched in horror, as she fell, in a white room, toward the Void, and he realized at that moment, far too late, why the room was so familiar to him. He dreamed it. He dreamed _this_.

 

And, as the horror was breaking over him, at the last possible moment, Pete Tyler appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her. There was one moment when Rose looked over her shoulder, met his eyes, before she vanished. And then, only seconds later, the Void closed. 

 

And everything in the white room was silent again. 

_[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61335.html) _   



	15. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (16/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (16/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)     
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, Jackie, Pete, Mickey, OCs  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem and Athena. They're all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – It's always darkest right before the dawn, right? Isn't that what the poets say?

The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)   , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)   , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

Thanks, as always, to [](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)   , who is a truly fantastic beta, a very brilliant sounding board, and a very happy hockey fan. Many thanks also to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)  , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) \- [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) \- [Ch. 9](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html) \- [Ch. 10](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53186.html) \- [Ch. 11](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53469.html) \- [Ch. 12](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/56634.html) \- [Ch. 13](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/57087.html) \- [Ch. 14](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/59445.html) \- [Ch. 15](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/60277.html) 

_Chapter Sixteen_

 

Rose pushed away from her father as soon as she could, whirled back toward the white wall. She was expecting it not to be solid, for some reason. She thought she’d be able to walk right through it, and the Doctor would be on the other side, white-faced but relieved as he held his arms open for her. 

 

“Take me back,” she said, frantically, banging her hands against the wall, trying to find a weak spot in it. “Take me back.” She turned to Pete. “That yellow button—” She dove for it, slammed her hand down on it, but nothing happened. Mascara was running into her eyes, blinding her, and she wiped it away impatiently. “What’s wrong with it? It’s broken. Mum, press yours.”

 

“Rose…” began Jackie, and Rose knew what she was trying to say and refused to hear it. 

 

“Press it!” she screamed. 

 

Jackie did, but nothing happened. No one disappeared. No one materialized. 

 

“No,” she said, and she couldn’t make her voice more than a whisper. Because this couldn’t be happening. “No, no, no, no, no.” She ran back to the wall, slamming into it. “Take me back!” she commanded, and she didn’t know who she expected to answer her. She pounded her fists against the wall, as sobs began to overwhelm her. And then she thought she could feel him. Which was a flight of fancy, as she had never been able to feel him. And, when she lifted up her pendant, it was a dull ashy grey, as if it had been burned by a match. No emotions to translate. There was no mish-mash of Brem and Athena, fighting over each other. There was just _nothing_. But she still pressed her hand against the wall, holding her breath, hoping that he was just there, just on the other side, that he would call her name and she would hear him and call back to him and he would find her and the kids would—

 

She thought she was going to be sick, as she slid to the floor, drawing her knees up and resting her forehead against them. She was no longer crying. She thought that what she was feeling was too much to allow for anything so simple as tears. 

 

“Rose,” her mother whispered, hand hesitantly smoothing over her hair. 

 

“The kids,” she said. “Oh, my God, the _kids_. I didn’t even say good-bye. I was so angry with the Doctor. I locked the kids in the nursery and Brem was trying to ask me and I didn’t have time for his questions and I said oh God I said—”

 

“Oh, _Rose_ ,” said Jackie, and Rose realized her mother was crying, as she pulled her into an embrace. 

 

She thought of the Doctor. _Everything you love is in_ that _universe._ No, everything she loved was in the _other_ universe. And she had no idea what she was supposed to do now. 

 

“Jackie,” inserted a voice, gently. Pete’s, she realized. “Jackie, let’s go. We’ll take her back to the house—”

 

“No,” said Rose, jerking out of her mother’s arms. “No. I can’t go. I can’t go yet.” She flailed desperately when her mother tried to hug her again, when Pete tried to grab her. “I can’t go. He’ll come to get me. If there’s any way—he won’t leave me here. He’ll come to get me. I need to give him time. He’ll just need a little time, that’s all.”

 

“Alright, sweetheart. We can give you time. Let’s just go—”

 

“No. He knows I’m here. I’ll wait here—”

 

“Rose, he said it was impossible,” Pete told her. “Once he closed the breach, he said it would be forever. No more jumping between worlds.”

 

“But you don’t know him!” she cried, fiercely. “He’s the Doctor! Impossible is…Impossible means _nothing_ to him. And I’m here. I’m trapped here. He’ll do anything to get me back to them. Mum.” She turned to her mother, frantic. “You know him, Mum. Would he leave me here? Inseparable, you said we were. Inseparable. And Athena. She’s so small still. She _needs_ me. He won’t leave me here. I have to wait five and a half hours. I promised him I’d always wait five and a half hours. Mickey! You know that! You were there! Five and a half hours, didn’t I promise him?”

 

Mickey cleared his throat. He looked as heartbroken as she felt. She wondered what a wreck she must look, that everyone was gazing at her with such pity. Did they not understand? She had the great good fortune to be loved by the _Doctor_. He would come for her. “It’s true,” he said. “She promised him five and a half hours.”

 

She turned back to her mother, relieved. “Just give me five and a half hours. Please?” 

 

Her mother relented, with a tiny nod. 

 

They left her, in the dim white room. She was freezing, as she curled herself up into a ball and stared fixedly at the wall, waiting for it to dissolve, for Madrid to come bounding through, followed by Brem and Athena. They would fall on her, giggling with delight, while Madrid tried to lick her. The Doctor would stand, in his pinstripes, a bit behind, waiting his turn, but his eyes would be deep with emotion as they watched her. 

 

“Rose,” said Mickey. 

 

She looked up at him, startled. “Has it been five and a half hours?”

 

“It’s been six,” he told her. 

 

Rose blinked, uncomprehending, stared at the stubborn wall. She lifted up the pendant to look at it. Still ashy gray. “It’s supposed to pick up Time Lord moods,” she said, dully, before dropping it. 

 

“Babe,” said Mickey, and crouched down to look her in the eye. “He’ll find you. Wherever you are. So let’s go back to Pete’s house. We’ll feed you. You can get some sleep. Want to look good for when he shows up, right?”

 

“Yeah,” said Rose, but she wanted to say it was no use, wasn’t it? Her Time-Lord-mood detector pendant—she might as well fling it into the Thames. She stood up, shivering. “I’m freezin’, Mickey,” she said. “I’m jus’ so cold.”

 

**********************

 

The first thing he became aware of was his own breathing. It was too quick to be accomplishing anything, and he realized he was close to hyperventilating, even with a respiratory bypass system. He was still maintaining a stranglehold on the magnaclamp, and he forced himself to let go. It was a huge effort to do it, an even bigger effort to walk over to the wall. He stared at it. Hard and unyielding. The breach had closed. Exactly as he had planned it. 

 

He pressed his hand to the wall, pressed his ear against it, tried desperately to _feel_ her. His mind faltered, unable to find her, and the emptiness where she should have been was so alarming that he dropped his hand, stepped away. 

 

He had no idea what to do. He tucked his hands into his pockets, more out of force of habit than anything else, and began walking away from the wall. His feet dragged. He felt as if he were walking through syrup. Every step pounded through his head. _Rose, Rose, Rose…_  


 

What had he _done_? How had he given in, let her help? Why hadn’t he insisted she go back to the TARDIS, insisted she go back to Pete’s World? He had wanted her with him. He had so selfishly wanted her with him. And now he had—Now he had—

 

He stopped walking, taking a strangled breath and staring into space. What was he going to do? What was he going to _do_?

 

“Dad? Dad.”

 

The Doctor blinked and focused on Brem, standing in front of him. He wasn’t sure how many times Brem had said “Dad” before he had responded, but he had a feeling it had been more than twice. He looked at him for a second, tried to think of something to say. What could he possibly say? _I’ve lost your mother. I trapped her in another universe._  


 

“The nursery door unlocked,” said Brem, worriedly. “The TARDIS said I should find you.” His eyes flickered toward the wall. “Where’s…” He trailed off, and the Doctor wished he hadn’t. He wanted the question asked. He wanted to have to say the answer out loud. 

 

Brem looked at him. Their eyes met, for a very long moment, and Brem’s softened. His little hand reached out, tugged the Doctor’s hand out of his pocket, threaded his fingers through his. “Come on,” he said, gently. “We have to go back to the TARDIS. Athena’s waiting.”

 

The Doctor let himself be led, because he couldn’t think of anything else to do. The TARDIS was loud in his head, and he knew if he could feel it, it would be trying to comfort him. But he couldn’t really feel it. He felt somewhat broken, like he was unable to translate the things going on around him. 

 

Brem pulled him into the nursery. Athena was on the floor, drinking a bottle, and she looked with wide eyes at her father as he entered. “Mum?” she queried, taking the bottle out of her mouth for a moment. 

 

The Doctor moved his mouth, trying to answer, but found no words would come out. 

 

“Shh,” Brem told his sister, and then tugged on his hand. “Sit down,” he said. 

 

There was nowhere to sit. This was ridiculous. But the Doctor, exhausted, sank to the floor and put his head in his hands. Madrid came sniffing over, but Brem pushed him away, then crawled onto his lap, underneath his arms, and cuddled into him, and the Doctor held him tightly, grateful for the contact. 

 

“I’m so sorry, Dad,” Brem whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

 

“Oh, Brem,” the Doctor choked out. “I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

 

Athena had toddled over to them, crawled onto his lap as well. “Where’s Mum?” she begged, and then burst into tears. 

 

**********************

 

Athena stopped crying eventually--when it became clear that her father was not going to go fetch her mother for her. The Doctor would have said something to her, except he had no idea what to say. He sat on the floor, his lap full of children and dog, and thought that the longer they sat on the floor, the longer he could delay getting up, doing something normal, without Rose. 

 

Brem snuffled against him, finally, drawing him out of his stupor. He was doing this wrong. Rose would kill him if she knew he was letting Brem comfort him instead of the other way around. He fished around for something to say. “Are you hungry?” he asked. 

 

“No,” Brem mumbled. “Theenie’s sleeping.”

 

“Is she?” The Doctor shifted carefully. Athena moved sleepily against him. There you go, he thought. He could be of use. “We’ll put her in her cot,” he said, and Brem crawled off his lap, Madrid following. 

 

The Doctor stood, jostling Athena as he did so. She was looking up at him with tear-filled eyes he laid her in her cot. He was going to have to get better at this, he thought. “Go back to sleep,” he said, leaning over and kissing her cheek. 

 

“Where’s Pinky?” she said. 

 

“Who?” the Doctor asked, bewildered. 

 

Athena’s lower lip trembled. “I want Pinky,” she wailed, and began crying again. 

 

“It’s her doll,” said Brem. The Doctor looked down at him. He was rummaging through the pile of Athena’s dolls. “It has pink hair. She needs it to sleep with.” Brem looked at him briefly. “Help me find it.”

 

The Doctor pushed himself into movement, crouching. “Pink hair, you said?”

 

“Pink hair,” Brem affirmed. “We’re looking for it, Theenie,” he directed toward his sobbing sister. “Give us a second.”

 

The Doctor pushed aside dolls with every colour hair but pink. 

 

“Here it is,” said Brem. He was too short to hand it directly into the cot, handed it solemnly to his father instead.

 

The Doctor took it and gave it to Athena, who clutched it to her desperately and caught her breath. And then, pleased, she smiled at her father. One of those tongue-between-her-teeth smiles. And the Doctor thought, abruptly, that he might crash to the floor. He was barely functioning, he thought, and he was doing even that badly. His children had only had one parent who was any good at parenting, and they had just lost her. He didn’t even know what doll his daughter slept with. He had never heard her cry for a doll before. Rose must have taken care of that, making sure the doll was in the crib each night before she’d gone to bed, so that, whenever Athena felt like grabbing her hour of sleep, her beloved Pinky was already there. How many other things had Rose taken care of, that he had never noticed? The possibilities swamped him. 

 

He turned, looking down at Brem, who was watching him as if he really did expect him to crash to the floor.

 

“Are you hungry?” asked the Doctor. 

 

“No,” said Brem. 

 

“I’ll make you something to eat,” he said. It was the only thing he could think of to do. 

 

He made Brem peanut butter and jelly. There was no milk to serve. They never had stopped to get milk. He fixed iced tea instead, from the pitcher that Rose had labelled “Brem” for its perfect ratio of sugar to tea. There was a separate pitcher that she’d labelled “Athena.” He found himself standing with the refrigerator door open for the longest time, while he stared at Rose’s handwriting on the pitchers. 

 

He finally turned back to Brem. Brem had eaten obediently and the Doctor was relieved, sending him a weak smile. “Was it good?”

 

“Excellent,” said Brem, softly.

 

“Good.” The Doctor ruffled his hair and tried to think what they could do next. 

 

“You’re tired,” Brem remarked. 

 

“Very tired,” the Doctor agreed. 

 

“You could take a nap, if you wanted.”

 

“You wouldn’t mind?”

 

Brem shook his head. 

 

The Doctor hesitated. He was tired, but what he really wanted was to be alone. Just a moment alone. Because he really needed, he thought, to fall apart before he could put himself back together. “We’ll set you up with something to watch,” he said. “What catches your fancy?” He took Brem’s hand as they walked toward the library. 

 

Brem was silent for a second. “Maybe _EastEnders_?”

 

It was a Rose choice, but the Doctor didn’t comment on it as he pushed the on button. He paused, looking down at Brem as Brem looked up at him from his seat on the couch. And then he did something he realized he should have done years ago. “I love you,” he said, and kissed his forehead. 

 

“I know,” said Brem. 

 

The Doctor tousled Brem’s hair, then dragged his feet toward their bedroom. The room seemed impossibly large and impossibly silent, and he could barely make it to the bed. He pushed at the bedspread, grabbed at the sheet and pulled it up and over his head, turned his face into Rose’s pillow. It smelled like her, and he took a long inhale. And he exhaled on a sob. 

 

**********************

 

The Doctor woke up to Athena crying, piped into the bedroom the way the TARDIS always piped the kids’ sounds of distress to wherever he and Rose were, and that was the only way he knew he’d fallen asleep. He certainly didn’t feel any better. His head ached and his brain felt sluggish and his hearts _hurt_. He opened his eyes, staring at the bedsheet, which was still over his head, before making himself move, stumbling out of the bed. He needed a cold shower badly, he thought, but he needed to get Athena more. He scrubbed his hands over his face as he left the bedroom, wiping at tearstains and wondering how much of a wreck he looked and how much he was going to alarm the children. 

 

She was calling for him, “Daddy!” quite clearly, and he broke into a run of alarm as he skidded into the nursery. 

 

Brem was standing at the crib, pushing what dolls he could through the spindles to her. “Please stop crying, Theenie,” he was saying. “ _Please_ stop.”

 

Athena had pulled herself to standing and held her arms out for her father as soon as she caught sight of him. “Daddy,” she cried. 

 

“I’m here,” he assured her, picking her up and kissing her tumbled hair. Another thing he was going to have to learn: how _did_ one put Time Lord hair into a ponytail? “I’m so sorry I took so long getting here. But I’m here. I’ve got you.”

 

Athena turned her wet face into her neck. “Daddy,” she sobbed. “I want Mummy. Why can’t I have Mummy? Please?” she begged, heartbrokenly. 

 

He thought he’d been done falling apart. He was no longer so sure. “Oh, Theenie,” he said, cradling her against him while she cried. He looked at Brem, whose watchful eyes were fastened on him. They were going to have to know. He had to tell them. “D’you want tea?” he asked. 

 

“No,” said Athena, belligerently, sounding as if she thought he was daft. Maybe he was. 

 

“Well, I need a cuppa,” he said. “And then we need to talk.”

 

He set Athena in her high chair while he went about making tea. She kept making little mewling sounds and wiping at her eyes as they overflowed, clearly unable to stop herself crying completely. 

 

“Brem,” he said, “d’you think you’ll take milk in your tea?”

 

Brem blinked. “I get to have hot tea?” It was not something his mother had allowed him, with the idea that he was still too young. 

 

“If you like. Although I’ve just remembered, we’ve no milk.”

 

He could tell that Brem was momentarily taken with the novelty of this; it was the first time since Brem had appeared before him in the lever room that his eyes looked bright. He peered into his cup as his father heavily spooned sugar into it. “I’ll be okay without milk.” He paused. “For now. I might like it with milk.” There was another pause. “Mum takes her tea with milk.”

 

“She does,” agreed the Doctor, carefully, pulling Athena out of the high chair and then picking up both cups of tea. “Here we go, into the library.”

 

Athena, still sniffling, let her brother lead her. One hand was still clutching Pinky, dragging her along behind her by the hair. The Doctor set both cups on the coffee table, settled on the couch. The kids clambered up to cuddle with him. Madrid leaped up as well and curled himself into a corner. 

 

Brem and Athena both looked at him expectantly, ready for the story. Athena’s lower lip had started to tremble again, and he watched her bite it and blink at her tears. She was a baby, he thought. She was not even two years old. And already she was trying to figure out how to keep tears inside her. How had he gotten them to this point? 

 

He cleared his throat. “Your mum,” he began, and then didn’t know what else to say. He started with the most obvious thing he could think of. “Your mum loves you,” he said. “More than anything in the universe.” He looked from Athena to Brem and back again. “You know that, don’t you? If she could be here, she would be.”

 

“But where is she?” wailed Athena. 

 

The Doctor glanced at Brem, who was now looking fixedly at his cup of tea on the table. The Doctor realized he didn’t want to tell this tale. Brem had been so… _comforting_. He was terrified of the accusation that would replace it as soon as he figured out that this was all his father’s fault. 

 

He looked back at Athena. “She’s…There are these things called…parallel worlds and they…I mean there’s a universe next to our universe, and another one next to that, with other Earths in them. Alternate Earths. And there was…The thing about the universes is…You can’t really…” He was doing a rubbish job explaining this. Athena looked totally perplexed. 

 

“How did she get there?” Brem asked his teacup. 

 

The Doctor looked at him. “What?”

 

“Mum’s in the parallel world, right? So how did she get there? Can’t we get her out the same way?”

 

“There…No. There was a breach, and…I closed it.”

 

Brem looked at him then. “You closed it while she was on the other side?”

 

“I didn’t mean to. It happened so quickly. She fell and—”

 

“So how are we getting her back?” Brem asked, patiently. 

 

“I…” The Doctor trailed off, at a loss. He had no idea how to do it without ripping two universes apart. 

 

Athena had picked up the thread of the conversation. “Can’t we just go to this other Earth?” 

 

“We can’t, it would…We’d die. All of us. Mum, Grandma, us. We can’t do that.”

 

“Well, we’ve got to think of something,” said Brem. “We _have_ to get Mum back. We can’t just leave her there. You have to think. I know you’re sad, we can feel that you’re sad, but we just need to _think_. There’s got to be a way.”

 

He said it so simply. There had to be a way. Of course. Didn’t his father fix everything? Everything in the universe? “I don’t…” he said, helplessly. 

 

Brem looked at Athena, who looked shell-shocked. “Don’t worry, Theenie,” he assured her, confidently. “Dad’ll figure it out.” Brem slid off the couch to sit on the floor in front of the coffee table, pulling his teacup over to him, and looked at his father. “You’ll figure it out, won’t you?”

 

The Doctor took a deep breath. He was frightened he wouldn’t. But he promised things he was unsure of every day, to help people breathe easier. And he did it to Brem. “I’ll figure it out,” he said. 

 

Brem, satisfied, blew on his tea. 

 

Athena snuggled against him. “I love you, too, Dad, but I really miss Mummy,” she said. 

 

“I know,” he said, and sighed. “I know.”

_[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61914.html) _   


  



	16. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (17/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (17/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)     
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Rose, Jackie, Pete, Mickey  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem and Athena. They're all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)   , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)   , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

[](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)   is my amazingly talented beta. Many thanks also to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)  , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) \- [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) \- [Ch. 9](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html) \- [Ch. 10](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53186.html) \- [Ch. 11](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53469.html) \- [Ch. 12](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/56634.html) \- [Ch. 13](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/57087.html) \- [Ch. 14](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/59445.html) \- [Ch. 15](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/60277.html) \- [Ch. 16](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61335.html) 

_Chapter Seventeen_

 

Rose didn’t sleep the first night. Nor did she sleep the second. She focused on the environmental issues with the lack of sleep: she missed her pillow and her mattress and the hum of the TARDIS. She felt she had to focus on those issues, because she couldn’t focus on everything else she missed or she’d drive herself mad. 

 

It didn’t stop her from staring up at the ceiling all night. 

 

On the third night she accepted the sleeping pill, desperate to quiet her mind for a little while. The good night’s sleep did nothing for her. She still woke up thinking of everything she missed, and worrying that she was never going to see them. She was terrified she’d forget little things about them, kept forcing herself to visualize Athena’s face, imagine Brem’s voice. She ached for their warmth as they hugged her, for the trusting adoration in their eyes whenever they looked at her. What did they think, without her? What had the Doctor told them? What were they doing, at that very moment? 

 

Mostly people left her alone. She could tell that Pete was bewildered, had not thought, when he had decided to take Jackie back, that she’d come saddled with a daughter swiftly tipping her way into a full-blown depression. Jackie gave her space, apparently believing that’s what was needed. Rose could sense her mother was just as shell-shocked as she was, anyway. She didn’t think they’d be very effective comforting each other. 

 

Mickey came to visit her on the fifth day, when she was sitting in the conservatory, a glass-walled room filled with plants that reminded her of the garden on the TARDIS. 

 

“Hi,” he said, looking awkward and uncertain. 

 

She flickered him a smile. “Hi there.”

 

 He sat down next to her. “You look good,” he said. 

 

“I look a wreck,” she corrected him. 

 

“Well, I mean…” He trailed off. 

 

Rose’s smile was cold and brittle, as she stared out of the conservatory. “I may be losing my mind, Mickey.”

 

“Your mum says you’re jus’ grieving, ’s all.”

 

“Grieving. I shouldn’t be. I’m sure they’re all fine. He’s a great father, Mickey. He’s a really spectacular father. He’ll take excellent care of them. They’ll be fine.”

 

She could feel Mickey watching her, tried to give the impression of being under control. “She says you’re grieving for you,” he said. 

 

Rose chuckled humourlessly. “She may be right about that one.”

 

“Two kids, huh?” said Mickey, after a second. 

 

“Yeah.”

 

“A boy and a girl?”

 

Rose nodded. 

 

“What are they called?”

 

“Brem—it’s short for Bremsstrahlung—and Athena. Bremsstrahlung Jack and Athena Rose.”

 

“Nice names,” said Mickey. There was a moment of silence. “Bremsst…?”

 

Rose smiled, genuinely, and looked at him. “It’s a type of electro-magnetic radiation.” The smile faded slowly. “Or it was. In my universe.”

 

“I’m sure he’ll get to you, Rose. I’m sure of it.”

 

“It’s been five days, Mickey, and there’s been nothing. I thought by now…”

 

“You’ve got to give him time, babe.”

 

“You’ve certainly changed your opinion of him,” remarked Rose, thinking of the time she had spent on that 51st-century spaceship, listening to Mickey complain about how the Doctor had abandoned them. 

 

“Well. He married you and everything, didn’t he?” Mickey gestured toward her diamond. 

 

Rose looked down at it. “Yeah, he kind of did, didn’t he? I need to come up with something to do, Mickey. I’m going to go mad with boredom sitting around here, _waiting_ for him. I’ve got to do something to pass the time.”

 

Mickey was silent for a second. “There’s still a Torchwood open for business on this planet. I reckon you know a thing or two about aliens.”

 

Rose was silent for a second in return. “I reckon I do.”

 

**********************

 

Pete thought she was fragile, she knew he did. This fragile, mad burden that had tagged along with Jackie. He walked on eggshells around her, as if he thought a wrong word would send her to the sort of insanity you read about in the papers, Daughter of Wealthy Family Kills Parents. Which was why he blinked at her in surprise when she asked him if he thought she could interview. 

 

“At Torchwood?” he said, in unconcealed astonishment, over the morning newspaper. 

 

“Not for anything…Not field work, not right now, I’m not sure I’m up to that, it’s been years since I’ve had to run for my life, really. But maybe some sort of consulting position. The aliens here, they mightn’t be all that different from the ones I know about. I’ve seen all sorts of things. I could help, maybe.”

 

“Oh, Rose!” exclaimed her mother. “I think that’s a marvellous idea. Don’t you think so, Pete?”

 

Rose could tell that Pete did not think this was a good idea. But he acquiesced, in the interest of keeping peace in his household. And Rose had the impression she pleasantly surprised him by being, well, sane. And relatively capable. She missed the TARDIS translation circuit dearly, but she still knew some things they didn’t. She found, happily, that she was able to sleep again. Sleep lots, actually, although her appetite lagged in returning, a fact that her mother noticed. 

 

“Rose,” she said to her, a few weeks into life in this new universe, “I think the job at Torchwood was a good idea, but you’ve got to eat something, darling. You’ve got to keep your strength up. You’ve got to.”

 

Rose stared at the food on the table. Pete was working late, which was the reason why she felt able to say it. “I’m not…” She lifted her eyes to her mother and swallowed. “I’m pregnant.”

 

Rose saw her mother suck in breath. “Are you sure?”

 

“I wasn’t until this morning, when I took the test.” Rose pushed the plate of food away, leaned her elbows on the table and cradled her head in her hands. 

 

There was silence. Rose waited for her mother to tell her how ridiculous this was, how she couldn’t have a Time Lord baby, in this strange universe, without the Doctor. 

 

“Oh, sweetheart,” her mother said, and Rose felt her kiss the top of her head. “Congratulations.”

 

Rose looked up, amazed. “You’re happy?”

 

“I’d be happier if we had him here to help take care of a baby who’s not going to sleep. But it’s a baby, Rose. It’s your baby. How would I be anything but happy about that?” Jackie smiled down at her, her face bright with love. 

 

“We’ve been so much trouble for you,” said Rose, apologetically. “ _I’ve_ been so much trouble for you.”

 

“Not at all. You’ve been the only worthwhile thing I’ve ever done in my life. He turned out in the end to be a good dad, Rose. He’ll take care of Brem and Theenie. They’ll be fine. When he gets back to you, your kids are going to be in fantastic shape. And if he finds out that you didn’t take impeccable care of the child you’ve been entrusted with, he won’t be half furious. So we need to make sure you take care of yourself and this baby, and we don’t have him to tell us how to do it anymore, so we’ve got to rely on you.”

 

“Right,” she agreed, and tried to think logically about this. “We’re gonna need to talk to Pete.”

 

“I’ll talk to him,” Jackie promised her. 

 

**********************

 

“So, which movie did you want to watch tonight?” Pete asked her, face wreathed in smiles. They had begun this process shortly after Jackie had arrived, watching old movies that Jackie was familiar with so she could catch the Pete’s world differences. 

 

“Um,” said Jackie. “Let’s hold off on that for a second. Can we talk for a bit?”

 

Pete got a wary look. The same look the old Pete— _her_ Pete—had used to get when she’d asked if they could talk. Jackie smiled at the familiarity of it all. Everything old becomes new again. “Sure,” he agreed, cautiously. 

 

“It’s Rose,” began Jackie. 

 

“Rose? But I thought she was doing well, finally. She seems to be fitting in at Torchwood. She seems happier lately.”

 

Jackie was amazed that Pete could think Rose was doing anything like well. He only thought that because he didn’t truly know what Rose had been like before. Rose was happier, yes, but it was easy to be happier than suicidal. She was nowhere near the teasing, grinning, delightful daughter Jackie had used to have. “I think she’s doing better,” Jackie allowed, because she no longer sat up at night worrying that Rose might give up and end it all. Really, Rose’s steadfast belief that the Doctor would find her, which Pete thought unhealthy and counterproductive, had been the only thing that had reassured Jackie. Rose would never kill herself as long as she believed there was a chance she’d get back to her family. Jackie still felt desperate to keep that hope alive in Rose; she worried what Rose would be like when it flickered out. 

 

“Good, then,” said Pete, as if that closed the subject. 

 

“Pete, she’s…” Jackie tried again. “She’s pregnant.”

 

“Pregnant?” echoed Pete. “Who’s she been sleeping with? Is it Mickey?”

 

Jackie sighed. Men could be such idiots. “No, you git. It’s the Doctor’s baby, obviously.”

 

“The Doctor’s…? You’re telling me she’s pregnant with an alien baby?”

 

“They don’t come out with tentacles, you know,” Jackie bristled. “She’s had two already, and I’ve never seen more beautiful children.”

 

“Sorry,” he corrected himself. “Right, then. So Rose is pregnant. When is she due?”

 

“That’s the thing, Pete. The kids look normal, but the pregnancies are…Well, the kids themselves are difficult in a way, and I think the pregnancies are more so. I mean, not difficult if you’ve got a Time Lord hanging around who knows these things, but she doesn’t have that anymore. It’s still an alien pregnancy. I think she’s going to need, well, help.”

 

Pete looked at Jackie for a second. “We haven’t got a Time Lord here, Jacks. We don’t have Time Lord technology. We don’t know anything about the Time Lord species. How are we going to—”

 

“Rose knows. Rose has done this before, and she knows. She just needs help.”

 

“Jackie, I don’t know what—”

 

“Please, Pete. We have to try. Please. She needs this baby. It’s a piece of him, and she _needs_ it. We have to give it to her. Please.”

 

Pete sighed. “I’ll give her whatever she needs, Jackie. You know that. I’m just worried it might not be enough.”

 

**********************

 

Rose was mostly a loner. She didn’t seem inclined to make friends, was satisfied to keep to herself, do her work, go home at night. There were Mickey and Jake, and they tried to make her feel connected to this world, but she patiently let their efforts roll off her. She hadn’t told them yet that she was pregnant. 

 

She was scared to, frankly. She was not sure if she would be able to have this baby. Everything seemed _harder_ in this world. She fretted constantly over the complicated Gallifreyan baby whose DNA her body was right that moment trying to figure out how to triple helix. 

 

Pete found her off by herself, as she usually was. “I’m not interrupting, am I?” he asked, awkwardly. 

 

She smiled and shook her head. “Not at all. What’s up?”

 

He sat next to her. “I, er, understand congratulations are in order.”

 

“Mum talked to you,” Rose deduced, and then launched into an apology. “I’m sorry. I know it’s such a bother. The Doctor and I weren’t really very good…about birth control. I think we both would have loved another baby, and figured it would happen at the right time. I can’t believe that _now_ is the right time.”

 

Pete looked at this beautiful woman whose eyes were always swamped with sadness. “I think now might be the perfect time,” he said. “Don’t apologize. It’s wonderful news. How are you feeling?”

 

“I’m fine. A bit tired, a bit queasy. It’s typical for me at this stage.”

 

“When do you think you’re due?”

 

“I don’t know. It usually takes about a year, these pregnancies.”

 

“A year?” Pete couldn’t conceal his surprise. 

 

“They’re complicated, these Gallifreyan babies,” Rose smiled, rubbing her tummy. “They need more time.”

 

“Right.” She could see Pete struggling to wrap his mind around all of this. “What is it that you need? For the baby?”

 

Rose thought. “I need a doctor. One we can trust. Who won’t be alarmed, and who won’t…tell people. If the Doctor doesn’t come get me…I don’t want this baby looked at as some sort of…Torchwood specimen.”

 

“Never, Rose,” Pete said, fiercely. “I would _never_ let that happen.”

 

Rose immediately felt a little bit better. The idea had been worrying her. “Good. I’m glad.”

 

“I’ll find you a doctor,” Pete said, and then smiled. “Not the Doctor you want maybe, but I’ll try to come up with some sort of substitute.”

 

“I’d appreciate that.” Rose paused. “I am sorry. I know I’ve been…not what you signed up for when you signed up for my mother.”

 

“Are you kidding? You’re exactly like her. You’re almost exactly what I signed up for.” Rose almost laughed out loud, imagining the horror on the Doctor’s face if he’d heard her called exactly like her mother. “I know I’m not your father, Rose,” said Pete, sobering her. “But I will take care of you. And I will protect you. You and the baby. I promise.”

 

“Until the Doctor gets here,” said Rose. 

 

And Pete hesitated only briefly before nodding. “Yes.”

_[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62079.html) _   



	17. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (18/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (18/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)     
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, Jackie, Pete, Owen, OCs  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem and Athena. They're all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – I keep doing this to you guys, and I'm sorry for posting on consecutive days and then disappearing. I fail at organizing my weeks for you, I really do...

The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)   , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)   , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

[](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)   is so awesome and so in-demand that I am terribly flattered that somehow I stumbled into having her as a beta. Many thanks also to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)  , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) \- [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) \- [Ch. 9](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html) \- [Ch. 10](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53186.html) \- [Ch. 11](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53469.html) \- [Ch. 12](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/56634.html) \- [Ch. 13](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/57087.html) \- [Ch. 14](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/59445.html) \- [Ch. 15](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/60277.html) \- [Ch. 16](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61335.html) - [Ch. 17](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61914.html)

_Chapter Eighteen_

 

The doctor Pete came up with was named Owen Harper. His bedside manner may have been a bit lacking, as he was more of a scientist than a doctor, but there was a matter-of-factness to him that soothed Rose. 

 

“So you’re havin’ an alien baby, I’m told,” he said, upon meeting her, as if he were saying, _So there’s a history of high cholesterol in your family, I’m told_. Rose wasn’t entirely sure if he was trustworthy—that same matter-of-factness made him seem conviction-less, which worried her; she’d lived with the Doctor long enough that creatures without convictions scared her—but Pete seemed to think it would be fine, and she had to trust Pete. 

 

Owen, though, listened to everything she said with an accepting intelligence. “Triple helix DNA?” he repeated, when she said that was the reason he couldn’t get a clear reading on the baby. “That’s some advanced species who got you knocked up.” Which wasn’t exactly a nice thing to say, but at least wasn’t panic. And, when he announced she was having twins and she said, “No, hopefully not. Two hearts, one baby, that’s the way it goes,” he merely shrugged. 

 

Owen Harper, she thought, might possibly be able to help her have this baby. And the thought relieved her. 

 

And then, one night, three months after her arrival in Pete’s world, she dreamed of the Doctor. This was not unusual in and of itself; she dreamed of him often. But this dream was different: Even as she was dreaming it, she was aware that it was an important dream, that she needed to pay attention to it. 

 

They met in a velvet black sky scattered with stars, which was impossible, of course, but seemed only appropriate. He gave her an achingly sweet smile and followed it up with the merest brush of his lips over hers. She knew he kissed her but she couldn’t feel his lips, which was odd. Normally her dreams of him were so vivid that she woke with the heat of his fingertips still on her skin, and she would be shivering with the cold of his sudden disappearance, as if going through it all over again. 

 

“Rose,” he whispered at her ear. “Can you hear me?”

 

And she could. He seemed to be whispering from inside of her. The words swept through her bloodstream, pushed against her skin. “Yes,” she whispered back. She lifted her hands to the hair at the nape of his neck, knew she was touching him but couldn’t seem to feel him at all. “What is it?” She sensed he had something important to tell her. 

 

“Follow me,” he whispered. “Follow my voice. Rose.”

 

She woke with a start, sitting up in bed in a cold sweat. The echo of the Doctor’s voice was fading inside of her, but it was crystal clear what she had to do. He was calling her. She couldn’t explain exactly how it was happening, but he was calling her. 

 

She leaped out of her bed, her heart in her throat as she raced to her mum and Pete’s bedroom and knocked on the door. Her mother answered sleepily, after a moment. “What is it?” she asked, alarmed. 

 

“Mum. I have to go to Norway.” She wasn’t sure where that location had come from, just that she knew it was right. 

 

Jackie stared at her. “What?”

 

“He’s calling me, Mum. He’s calling me. I have to pack and I have to go to Norway.”

 

Jackie was awake enough to say, “You’re not going alone.”

 

“Fine,” Rose agreed. “But we have to hurry.”

 

She flew back to her room. There wasn’t really anything to pack, once she stopped to think about it. She’d fallen into this world with nothing, and she could leave it just as easily. She threw a few of the articles of clothing she’d purchased into a bag, and then waited downstairs for Mum. She picked up her pendant. It was still ashy gray, but she still felt closer to the Doctor and the kids than she had in months. She was bouncing with excitement by the time her mother bustled down the staircase, followed by a yawning Pete. 

 

“Norway?” he said. “You’re sure?”

 

“I’m positive.” The conviction came from a place deep inside her that she could never have explained. 

 

They piled into Pete’s car and took off, driving and driving and driving. The Doctor kept calling, his voice whispering inside of her, and she became more and more confident that it was Norway. She only wished they could get there more quickly. She needed a TARDIS, she thought. For many, many, _many_ reasons. 

 

“Where in Norway?” Pete asked, finally, when they reached it. 

 

“Keep going,” Rose said. “It’s a shoreline. It’s a…beach. That direction.” His voice was stronger now, and Rose’s knuckles were white with tension as she twisted her hands together on her lap. She looked at the diamond ring, where her hand rested, just over the womb where the baby was growing. And she smiled, imagining the look on the Doctor’s face when she told him. She imagined how Brem would react. He would probably be alarmed, she thought, fondly. Whereas Athena would probably be thrilled, in her placid fashion. 

 

She knew the spot as soon as she saw it, made Pete pull the car up on the sand, and she clambered out of it. It was freezing, and the wind rushed up and stole her breath away. “Where are we?” she asked, turning back to Pete. 

 

He was fussing with the navigational system. “Dårlig ulv stranden,” he said. “On the Norwegian map. On the English map, it says Bad Wolf Bay.”

 

“Bad Wolf Bay,” Rose repeated, and grinned. “How appropriate.” She turned back and looked out over the beach. 

 

“Where are they?” her mother asked. 

 

“I don’t know.” Rose fished her crystal pendant out, and laughed with relief. “But they’re close!” It was no longer grey, was not really any one colour but was instead a swirl of suggestions of colours that were trying to assert themselves. 

 

Rose walked out over the beach, trying to look in every direction at once. And then, suddenly, they appeared on the beach. The Doctor, holding Athena in his arms and Brem by the hand. Brem waved at her enthusiastically, practically jumping up and down, and Athena tried to make a leap for her. Rose heard the “oof” that her sudden squirm elicited from the Doctor. She broke into a huge grin and raced for them, and then she was so full of emotion that she could think of nothing to say but, “You look like ghosts. I can see right through you.”

 

“Oh,” said the Doctor, letting go of Brem’s hand to reach the sonic screwdriver and pointed it. Their figures instantly solidified. 

 

She reached for Athena, who was still leaning toward her, anxious to cuddle her. 

 

“No touch,” the Doctor said, when her hands swiped through air. 

 

Athena suddenly began crying. “Mum,” she said, reaching for her. 

 

Rose, shocked, stared at the baby. “It’s okay,” she said, automatically, to Athena. “It’s fine.”

 

“Remember I said?” the Doctor said into Athena’s cheek. “You can’t touch but you can talk to her. Go ahead. Tell Mummy what we taught Madrid yesterday. Tell her.”

 

“Oh!” exclaimed Brem. “We taught him—”

 

“Let your sister tell her,” the Doctor interrupted, sharply. 

 

Athena was swallowing her tears. “We taught him to play dead.”

 

Rose smiled, trying to swallow her own tears, her heart aching with love. “Did you?”

 

Athena nodded, gaining momentum now. “He lays on his back with his paws in the air, you should see it.”

 

“I can’t wait to see it,” said Rose. 

 

“And Dad lets me drink tea,” inserted Brem. “Hot tea.”

 

“Does he? And do you like it?”

 

“I love it. But it’s better with milk. The way you have it.”

 

“I know. I keep telling your father that.” She looked at the Doctor. “How do I get back? What do I have to do?”

 

He hesitated. And she knew, at that moment, that she wasn’t getting back. He had no idea, she could see it in his eyes. And he wouldn’t say it out loud, she knew he wouldn’t, not in front of the children, and not in front of her, and maybe not even in front of himself, but he was at a loss and she knew it. “I’m working on it,” he said, finally. 

 

“Okay.” She tried to look as if she could handle that, as if she wasn’t breaking inside. “Okay. But we can do this? We can talk?”

 

He took a deep breath, and she knew the answer to that as well, and suddenly thought she might collapse to the sand. It was only the fact that Athena and Brem were watching her that kept her upright. “It…took a supernova to get this projection across, and even now we haven’t much time.”

 

“Not much time?” She looked at the kids, thinking she hadn’t had nearly enough time with them. 

 

“Two minutes,” said the Doctor. 

 

“Two minutes?” she gasped, feeling dizzy. 

 

“But we’re gonna get you back,” Brem inserted, anxiously. “Dad’s working on it.” Brem looked up at him. “Tell her how you’re working on it.”

 

“I am,” the Doctor managed, but he sounded like he was barely hanging onto his composure, which was not encouraging. “I’m working on it. I’ll figure it out, Rose. I promise.”

 

“I…I don’t know what to say,” Rose said. Her mind was flooded with everything that had to be said. 

 

The Doctor’s eyes flickered beyond her. “They’re taking care of you?”

 

She knew he meant her mother and Pete. “They’re…Yeah. And the baby.”

 

The Doctor blinked. “The baby? You’re not…?” His eyes swept up her figure. 

 

She went to say it, went to say yes, and the words died on her lips. She knew what it felt like to be separated from her children. And she suddenly couldn’t make herself say the words, to have the Doctor, on top of everything else, worry about this as well. She knew she should tell him. She _knew_ it. And yet, when she opened her mouth, she heard herself say, “No. It’s Mum’s…Mum is…”

 

“Get out,” said the Doctor, looking back at Jackie and grinning. “What about that, kids? You’re going to have an aunt or uncle who’s younger than you.” He looked back at her. “How long has it been for you?”

 

“Three months,” she said, and the Doctor winced. “How long has it been for you?”

 

“Two weeks.” 

 

She nodded.

 

“Where did the breach come out?” asked Brem. 

 

“What?” She looked at him, almost not understanding the question because it seemed so unexpected. 

 

“Dad and I were trying to plot it,” Brem explained, proudly. “Where we thought it’d be.”

 

It was a good way to get Brem involved, to distract him, and Rose was proud of the Doctor for coming up with it. “Oh, yeah? And where’d you think?”

 

“Norway,” said Brem. “Or Finland. Dad insists Finland.”

 

Rose smiled. “Norway.”

 

Brem bounced with triumph. “I knew it!”

 

The Doctor rolled his eyes. “Now he’s going to be insufferable.”

 

“It’s called Dårlig ulv stranden. .”

 

The Doctor’s eyes narrowed. “Dalek?”

 

She shook her head. “Dårlig. This place is Bad Wolf Bay.”

 

“Bad Wolf Bay?” echoed the Doctor. “Really?”

 

Rose nodded, and tried to figure out how much time she had left with them. Her eyes sought out Athena’s, then Brem’s. “You’ll be good for Daddy, right?” 

 

“We’ll be fine,” the Doctor assured her, voice full of false joviality. “Tell Mum what we’re going to do tomorrow.”

 

“We’re going to see Kaj and Muj,” Athena managed, lower lip trembling. 

 

“Oh, that’s an excellent idea.” Rose swiped hastily at her tears. “You,” she said to Brem. “Be patient with your father.”

 

Brem puffed up indignantly. “Don’t worry. I’ll watch him.”

 

Rose smiled. “That’s fine. But you don’t have to always be the brave one, you know. And try to comb your hair once in a while. And be nice to your sister.” She looked at the Doctor. “And make sure you make them eat vegetables. They can’t survive on just ice cream. And I love all of you so much.” She looked at each of them in turn. “I will always love all of you so much. Always.”

 

“We love you, too,” said Brem, readily, and Rose’s heart broke a little more. He was clearly doing his Doctor thing, pretending to be completely okay when nothing could be farther from the truth. 

 

“Tell your mother you love her,” the Doctor murmured against Athena. 

 

“I love you,” she said, her eyes swimming. 

 

“I know,” Rose said, and looked at the Doctor. “I know,” she said again, putting into the phrase everything they had never said. 

 

The Doctor opened and closed his mouth. “Rose,” he said, his voice breaking on the word. 

 

And then they vanished, without warning. She flinched as if someone had reached out and slapped her, staring in disbelief at the empty beach in front of her. Then her legs buckled under her, and she found herself sitting on the cold, wet sand, sobbing into her hands. 

 

**********************

 

Athena turned her face into the Doctor’s neck, but she did not cry. She took a long, deep breath of him, but she did not cry. She clung tightly to him, her tiny hands pulling at the hair on the nape of his neck as if she was afraid he would disappear, too. 

 

“Okay,” said the Doctor, conversationally, clearing his throat and holding Athena to him. He looked at Brem, who was still looking at the spot in the control room where his mother had just disappeared. “What should we do? We could play a game. What do you think? Um, Pictionary, maybe? Or Fleurdian snap?”

 

Brem didn’t say anything. He was very still. The Doctor looked at him carefully. 

 

Athena lifted her head up. “Can we talk to Mum again?”

 

“Not right now,” said the Doctor. 

 

“I didn’t get to tell her about my new ribbon,” said Athena. The Doctor had given Athena a ribbon he had found in the wardrobe for her hair. It had stopped her complaining momentarily about his inability to properly brush it into a ponytail; she loved it because it was pink. He was quickly discovering that Athena was enchanted by all things pink. How he had not realized this before? 

 

“I know,” he said. “It’s okay. Brem, do you want to go to the library? Maybe I’ll make hot cocoa? We could watch a movie? Would you like to watch a movie?”

 

“Can we watch _The Little Mermaid_?” asked Athena, brightly.

 

“Let’s see what your brother wants to watch. Brem?” The Doctor was concerned by Brem’s utter stillness. He had thought letting the kids talk to their mother for a couple of minutes—the best he could do—would help. But now he was worried that it hadn’t;  hadn’t helped them and hadn’t helped _him_. It had just reminded all of them of what they’d lost. 

 

Brem forced himself to look at his father. He seemed to be miles away, even as he answered. “It’s fine,” he said. “ _The Little Mermaid_ is fine.”

 

“And hot cocoa?” asked the Doctor, watching him. 

 

Brem nodded. 

 

The Doctor made them the hot cocoa and they settled in the library. Athena watched the movie raptly. The Doctor watched Brem, who sat in the corner of the couch, Madrid on his lap. His eyes were on the movie, but the Doctor didn’t think he saw any of it. Just as Sebastian was urging Eric to kiss the girl, Brem said abruptly, “I’m going to go get my blender-can opener-grill.” 

 

Brem had been trying to combine the three appliances in a workable fashion, before they had lost Rose. The Doctor thought it was a good sign that he wanted it back, wanted to tinker again. “Okay,” he agreed. Athena had not even looked up from the movie, so involved in it was she. 

 

He sat with Athena, watching the progression of the Eric-Ariel romance. He was always with Athena now. She cried miserably when he was not with her; she would not even consent to sleep without him being in the room. If she woke up to find him gone, it would take hours for him and Brem to calm her down. 

 

But the Doctor shifted after a little while, when Brem did not return. “I’m going to check on your brother, do you mind?”

 

Athena looked briefly away from the movie. “No,” she said. 

 

“If it gets scary, hide your eyes. I’ll be right back.” He kissed the top of her head as he settled her in the corner with Madrid and went off in search of Brem. 

 

Brem was not in the nursery, the blender-can opener-grill was on the floor where Brem had left it weeks earlier, and for a moment the Doctor panicked. Then he thought to walk through the attached door to Brem’s bedroom. Brem’s bedroom had used to have an ever-changing theme. It seemed he never used the same colours, the same interests, for more than a few days. The Doctor realized, as he walked in, that the room was still Olympic-themed, that it hadn’t changed at all in the weeks since Rose had disappeared. He had had this happy, enthusiastic, curious little boy, and he knew he had to figure out some way to get him back. 

 

Brem was curled into a ball on his bed, and the Doctor was relieved to see him. It was only after the initial relief that he realized that Brem was crying, tiny, furtive sobs against his bedspread with the Olympic rings. Brem had been such a rock, so reasonable, so in charge, while he had been flailing about not knowing what Pinky was and bewildered by Athena’s insistence that crusts be cut off her sandwiches. And he had _let_ him, because it had been so easy to have someone be capable while he was busy falling apart. And now he had a four-year-old who felt he had to cry in secret over his missing mother. Rose, he thought, would _kill_ him. 

 

He walked into the room, crawled onto the bed with Brem, and gathered him into his arms. Brem’s hands closed into his father’s lapels and he snuggled against him.

 

“I’m sorry, Dad,” he said, catching his breath. 

 

“Stop it,” the Doctor commanded, firmly. “Don’t you dare apologize. You’ve been holding all of us together, which isn’t your job and never should have been.”

 

“I miss Mum.”

 

“I know. I miss her, too.”

 

“You have to get her back, Dad. You _have_ to. _Please_. I’ll never ask for anything else ever again, I promise.”

 

The Doctor stared up at Brem’s ceiling. “If I’m going to get your mother back, I’m going to need some help.”

 

Brem lifted his head, sniffling. “I’ll help you. I will. I promise. Whatever you want.”

 

The Doctor smiled. “What I want is for you to change this room. Haven’t you had it like this for a while?”

 

Brem looked around him musingly. “I was thinking maybe I’d do a green ceiling. Kind of like the sky on Muscatan.”

 

“That’d be nice,” the Doctor agreed. 

 

“You think so?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Brem settled his little head on his father’s chest, and the Doctor listened to him take heavy, tear-laden breaths. He combed his messy hair. “You’ve been…You saved us. You saved all of us. I’ll handle it from this point on, I promise. I will get you back your mother. But we’re going to have to stop travelling for a little while. I need to concentrate.”

 

“That’s okay,” Brem said, anxiously, lifting his head again. 

 

The Doctor looked at him and smiled. 

 

“What?” asked Brem, tipping his head as his father stayed silent. 

 

“Two things,” said the Doctor. “First, I am impossibly proud of you. Second, and more importantly, we are so lucky, your mother and I, to have you.”

 

Brem suddenly giggled. 

 

“What’s so funny?” the Doctor asked, surprised. 

 

“Mum’s right about you.”

 

“How?” the Doctor asked, a trifle suspiciously. 

 

“She said you’d never use three words to say ‘I love you’ if you could use three hundred instead.”

 

“She _said_ that?”

 

Brem nodded, looking delighted at being able to share this revelation. 

 

“Welllll,” considered the Doctor, thoughtfully. “Good to know she knows that about me.”

 

“Mum knows everything,” Brem said, wisely. 

 

“Oi,” said the Doctor, good-naturedly. “She doesn’t know anything about the seven seasons of Hibrgex.”

 

Brem grinned, enjoying the teasing. His eyes were bright with humour, and he looked a hundred times better than he had just minutes earlier. “Yeah, and she thought the Head Consul on New Burftyria was a rock, remember?”

 

The Doctor enjoyed seeing Brem even marginally happy for a change. Everything seemed fixable suddenly. So what if he hadn’t a single idea on how to safely get across the Void? He would figure it out. He would. “She does know everything important, though,” he allowed. 

 

“Yeah,” Brem agreed, and cuddled against his father. 

 

They fell into a companionable silence, until Athena abruptly rounded the corner into the bedroom, Madrid on her heels. The Doctor lifted his head a bit to look at her. “What’s up?” he asked. 

 

“Ursula was…” Athena shuddered eloquently then leaped onto Brem’s bed, crawling to find space on the other side of her father. 

 

The Doctor felt somewhat content for the first time since he’d sensed the storm approaching. “Let’s go over Earth’s periodic table,” he said. “I’ll go first. Hydrogen.” And he and the kids named the elements, on Brem’s bed, as they orbited the supernova.

[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62834.html)   


 


	18. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (19/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (19/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)     
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Sarah Jane, OCs  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem and Athena. They're all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)   , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)   , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

Many, many thanks to the amazing and kindly patient [](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)   , for many things but also for being an excellent beta. Many thanks also to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)  , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) \- [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) \- [Ch. 9](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html) \- [Ch. 10](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53186.html) \- [Ch. 11](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53469.html) \- [Ch. 12](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/56634.html) \- [Ch. 13](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/57087.html) \- [Ch. 14](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/59445.html) \- [Ch. 15](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/60277.html) \- [Ch. 16](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61335.html) \- [Ch. 17](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61914.html) \- [Ch. 18](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62079.html)

_Chapter Nineteen_

 

“But why can’t we just stay on the TARDIS?” asked Athena, fidgeting as the Doctor attempted to gather her hair into a pigtail. 

 

“Because I have to work on getting Mum back, and I can’t watch you while I’m working. Stay still, Athena, or this is going to take forever.”

 

“Can’t Brem watch me?”

 

“No, Brem can’t watch you.”

 

“I totally could,” said Brem, watching the hair hijinks with some fascination. 

 

“No, you can’t,” the Doctor said. “You’re not in charge of all of us anymore, remember?”

 

“Why can’t we just stay on the TARDIS?” insisted Athena. 

 

“Because I’ll be working on the TARDIS. She can’t be distracted taking care of the two of you. There. What do you think?” He turned Athena toward the mirror, pleased with his handiwork. 

 

Athena frowned. “Well, I guess it’ll have to do.”

 

“Everyone’s a critic,” said the Doctor. “Okay, let’s go.” He picked Athena up and took Brem’s hand as they walked out of the TARDIS. 

 

“Who is this woman?” asked Brem, sounding suspicious. 

 

“A very good friend of mine.”

 

“How come we’ve never met her before? I bet Mum didn’t like her, did she?”

 

“Mum liked her.” The Doctor rapped on the door smartly. 

 

“Then how come we’ve never met her?” Brem insisted. 

 

“Billions of people live on this planet. I think there are at least a dozen you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting personally. Hello, Sarah Jane,” he finished, brightly, as the door opened. 

 

Sarah Jane Smith stared at him. “Doctor,” she managed. And then, “And kids.”

 

“Yup. That’s us. Can we come in?” He blustered his way into her house. “This is Brem. And this is Athena. Say hello to Sarah Jane, kids.”

 

“Hi,” they chorused, obediently. 

 

“Hi,” she said, sounding absolutely shocked. He supposed he didn’t blame her. 

 

“Could we talk?”

 

Sarah Jane blinked. “I—Yeah. Yeah.”

 

“We can see what’s on TV for the kids,” he suggested. Although it turned out Sarah Jane had video games, and the Doctor realized that there was much about Sarah Jane that he didn’t know. “Early 21st-century Earth,” he told Brem, “but it should do.”

 

“She has Guitar Hero!” Brem exclaimed. “I’m _spectacular_ at Guitar Hero.”

 

“Good,” said the Doctor. “Enjoy. And let your sister play with you.” He turned his attention to Sarah Jane and smiled at her. “Let’s have a cuppa.”

 

Sarah Jane silently led him into the kitchen but she did not go about making tea. She turned to him immediately. “You’re a father.” Her voice was almost breathless with disbelief. 

 

He stuck his hands in his pockets and leaned back against the counter. “Yeah,” he affirmed.

 

“Rose,” she said. 

 

“Yeah,” he affirmed again. 

 

“Where is she?” Sarah Jane asked. 

 

The Doctor broke eye contact, pulling at his earlobe. “She…Canary Wharf…”

 

“Oh, God,” breathed Sarah Jane. 

 

“No,” corrected the Doctor, hastily. “It’s not as bad as you’re thinking. She’s…trapped. In another universe. It’s kind of a long story. I’m glad to see you pulled through okay.”

 

“Fine,” said Sarah Jane. “Not that you would be here checking up on me if you didn’t want something. If you think you’re just dropping those kids off here—”

 

The Doctor looked aghast. “What? No! I would never…That would destroy them. That would destroy _me_. No, that’s not why we’re here.”

 

“But you want something,” remarked Sarah Jane, crossing her arms.

 

“I need to get Rose.”

 

“So get her.”

 

“It’s not that simple. When I say she’s trapped, she’s…I haven’t any idea how to get her, Sarah Jane. I just know that I have to.”

 

“And what do you think I can do?”

 

“I need some time. Not a lot. Just a bit. Just a few hours. I’ve got to figure this out. I was wondering if you could just…watch the kids. Just for a couple of hours a day. They’re really good kids, they’d be hardly any trouble at all, I promise.”

 

“Doctor…” Sarah Jane sighed. “I’ve got stuff to do. A life. Obligations.”

 

“The kids don’t sleep. Any time of the day or night, whatever works for you, that’d be fine.”

 

Sarah Jane shook her head a bit. “It isn’t that I don’t want to help, it’s just that…I haven’t heard from you for _years_. And you would never have gotten in touch with me, not even to see if I was still alive, if you didn’t have a problem.”

 

The Doctor hung his head, although Sarah Jane had the impression that he was trying to look suitably ashamed, rather than actually being suitably ashamed. “I’m not very good with this domestic stuff,” he half-whined. “You know that.”

 

“You seem to be _very_ good at domestic stuff when it comes to some people,” she pointed out, scathingly. 

 

The Doctor frowned, as if irritated that she’d made an actual point there. “It’s not…I mean, we haven’t got a house or anything.”

 

“You’ve got two kids.”

 

“And a dog,” the Doctor mumbled. 

 

Sarah Jane’s lips twitched with a smile. “And a dog?”

 

“But you wouldn’t have to watch the dog, I’ll handle the dog. Look, I know I’m not the best at…keeping in touch, and you’ve every right to turn me away and not help, but…The kids are little. And they need Rose. We’ve established I’m rubbish at this stuff. They really need their mother.”

 

Sarah Jane sighed. “You’re brilliant at guilt trips, you know that?”

 

“Only because I’m so familiar with guilt,” the Doctor replied. 

 

Sarah Jane looked across at him for a moment. He looked like hell, really. She had the impression that his hair was tangled not out of design but because it had been a while since it had been properly done, and it had managed to get itself out of hand. His eyes were dull, his posture lacked energy, even his suit looked haggard. “I’ll help you get Rose back. If only because I’d like to congratulate her on what a good job she did whipping you into shape.”

 

The Doctor closed his eyes briefly in relief. “Thank you. Really.” He leaned across suddenly, sweeping her into a hug. 

 

And she could feel immediately how tense he was. He seemed to be holding himself together through sheer force of will. “You’ll get her back,” she said, softly. “It’ll be fine.”

 

He laughed without humour, and spoke into her shoulder. “That’s what I tell the kids, two or three times a minute. You know, I think they still believe me. I don’t know how much longer that’ll last.”

 

“It’ll last until you bring her home, of course.” She pushed him away gently, smiled at him. “Now what did you say about the kids not sleeping?”

 

**********************

 

“I will be right back,” the Doctor promised her. “Three hours. On the dot. Three hours.”

 

Athena knew this, had been told it several times, was decked out in a fancy pink dress that she’d insisted on wearing and had her pink ribbon in her hair to hold back her ponytail, had a bevy of dolls in her bigger-on-the-inside bag and a supply of iced tea to get her through the next few hours, and yet still she clung to his leg and refused to let him go. Sarah Jane, watching, realized these kids were more than a little traumatized. 

 

“Listen to me,” the Doctor said, trying to pry her arms from him. “I promise you. I promise you. Right back. I will be right back.” He managed to extract his leg, crouched down to be on Athena’s level and was subjected to a violent hug from her instead. “Oh, Theenie,” he sighed, closing his eyes as he kissed her head. “I _promise_.”

 

“With Mum?” asked Athena.

 

“Welllll. No. Not today. Soon.”

 

Brem took his sister’s bag and turned it upside-down, spilling dolls all over Sarah Jane’s parlour. “Look, Theenie,” he said. “By the time we sort through the dolls, Dad’ll be back.”

 

Athena, almost against her own will, moved her face away from her father’s neck so she could examine the dolls that had been brought. 

 

“Good,” the Doctor said. “Excellent. Then, when I get back, we can throw them all back in the bag and sort through them _again_ back in the TARDIS.”

 

Athena hesitated, then looked at him. “Three hours,” she said. 

 

“Not a minute more or less,” he replied, tapping his finger on the tip of her nose. 

 

Athena blessed him with a giggle--so rare these days-- then turned from him, reaching for her dolls. 

 

The Doctor, relieved to have that crisis over with, stood up and ruffled his hair, looking at Sarah Jane. “They’ll be fine,” he assured her, trying to sound calm. “They’ve been told to behave.”

 

“And you’ll be back in three hours, I gather,” said Sarah Jane. 

 

“Yeah,” he said, glancing at the kids. Brem was seriously arranging the dolls in a line, while Athena frowned and shuffled them about into a different order. “Exactly,” he said, and left. 

 

Sarah Jane stood, uncertain what she was supposed to do with these Time Lord children. They seemed absorbed in themselves, and she wasn’t keen to remind Athena that her father was no longer there, so she thought she’d make a cuppa before figuring it out. 

 

She’d just filled the kettle when Brem said, behind her, “Are you makin’ tea?”

 

Sarah Jane turned to him, watching as he clambered onto a chair. “Yeah.”

 

“Can I have some?” he asked. “Dad lets me have some. Ten sugars. And milk.”

 

Sarah Jane lifted her eyebrows. “Ten sugars?”

 

Brem nodded as if there were nothing unusual about that. “If it’s a mug,” he said, as an afterthought. “Seven in a cup. Because cups are smaller. The ratio of water to sugar is therefore much smaller. It’s all mathematical. To a point. Then some of it is just personal taste.”

 

“Ah,” said Sarah Jane, and, uncertain how else to react, added more water to her kettle. “What about your sister?”

 

“She’s too little for hot tea.”

 

“But what’s she doing?”

 

“She’s playing with her dolls. She’s alright. She’ll do that for hours. She’s not usually so…fussy. It’s just because she misses Mum. She’ll be fine once Dad gets Mum back.” Brem rested his elbow on the table and then rested his chin on his fist, studying Sarah Jane closely. 

 

He looked uncannily like the present incarnation of his father, all intent brown eyes and messy brown hair and freckles. It was a bit disconcerting. 

 

“So you’re Sarah Jane,” he said, after a moment. 

 

“What does that mean?” she asked, suspiciously. 

 

“Nothing. That’s just who you are.”

 

“What’s he told you about me?”

 

“Nothing. Dad never talks about anything important, don’t you know that?”

 

“You’ve got him figured out, don’t you?”

 

“He’s my dad,” Brem answered, simply. “Plus, that’s what Mum says.”

 

“So.” Sarah Jane turned to her sink, began to rinse out the mug she’d used that morning. “Brem. Where’d they come up with that?”

 

“It’s short for Bremsstrahlung,” he said. “It’s a type of electro-magnetic radiation.”

 

Sarah Jane glanced over her shoulder at him as she grabbed a towel and began drying the mug. “They named you after electro-magnetic radiation?”

 

“Well. My mum’s named after a flower. What’s the difference? What are you doing?”

 

“I’m…” Sarah Jane looked down at the mug she was drying, perplexed that Brem’s gaze was fastened on it. “I’m drying this mug.”

 

“You have to _dry_ your dishes!” Brem exclaimed. “Like they do on TV!”

 

“Everyone needs to dry their own dishes,” Sarah Jane said. “Unless you let them air-dry.”

 

“The TARDIS dries ours for us. She takes care of that. Is it fun, to dry dishes?”

 

“Not particularly.”

 

“I bet you have to _iron_ , too!” 

 

“I do.”

 

“When are you going to do that?” Brem bounced with excitement at the prospect of ironing. 

 

“I don’t know. Not for a while.” The kettle whistled, and she turned to make them tea. She set his mug in front of him and watched as he knelt and carefully measured his ten sugars in. 

 

“Milk?” he asked, politely, looking at her expectantly. 

 

“Oh. Yes.” She opened her fridge to grab the milk, but Brem suddenly darted over to her. 

 

“Have you _jam_?” he asked, in delight, and grabbed the jar and carried it over to the table with him. “We hardly ever get to have jam.” He tugged and twisted at the cover, unable to open it, and frowned. 

 

“Why aren’t you allowed to have jam?” asked Sarah Jane, warily. 

 

“Mum says sticking your finger in the jam jar is not the proper way to eat it.”

 

“No.” Sarah Jane, alarmed, took the jar away from him. “It’s not. You can have toast and jam, if you like.”

 

Brem’s face fell. “But that takes all the fun out of it.” 

 

Sarah Jane ignored him, replacing the jam in the refrigerator and pouring some milk into his cup of tea. 

 

Brem was silent for a whole twenty seconds, watching the addition of the milk critically and then taking a careful sip of it. “Good,” he pronounced, after considering the gulp. 

 

Sarah Jane sat in the chair opposite him and took her own sip. Here she was, having a tea party, with the Doctor’s four-year-old son. 

 

“So what’s it like living in a house that stays the same size?”

 

“What’s it like living in a house that doesn’t?” she countered. 

 

Brem looked pleased with that answer, then frowned again. “But what do you do when you need more space? When Athena was born, the TARDIS made a whole extra room for me. And it lets me change the wall colour three times a week. Any more and she gets sulky and moves sluggishly and then Dad blames me, even though it’s probably because he’s not connected the floilometer correctly. How often do you change your wall colour?”

 

“Not very often.”

 

“That’s too bad for you,” said Brem. “Don’t you get bored?”

 

“Well, I didn’t, but now that you mention it…” Sarah Jane looked at her neutral-coloured walls, suddenly displeased. 

 

“How d’you change your wall colour?” Brem gasped suddenly. “Do you paint? Oh! Oh! Let’s paint your walls can we paint your walls pleeeeeeeeeeease?”

 

Sarah Jane blinked at him. “You want to…You know what, Brem? Maybe I _should_ change my wall colour.”

 

“I’m thinking turquoise,” said Brem, seriously. “I’ve got turquoise this week, and it’s brilliant.”

_[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/63261.html) _   



	19. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (20/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (20/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)     
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, Jackie, Mickey, OCs  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem and Athena. They're all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)   , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)   , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

Many, many thanks to [](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)   , who is always an excellent beta. Even if her memory's a mess. Many thanks also to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)  , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) \- [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) \- [Ch. 9](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html) \- [Ch. 10](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53186.html) \- [Ch. 11](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53469.html) \- [Ch. 12](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/56634.html) \- [Ch. 13](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/57087.html) \- [Ch. 14](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/59445.html) \- [Ch. 15](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/60277.html) \- [Ch. 16](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61335.html) \- [Ch. 17](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61914.html) \- [Ch. 18](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62079.html) \- [Ch. 19](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62834.html) 

_Chapter Twenty_

The baby grew. Rose would lay awake at night, one hand resting on the gentle swell of her stomach, one hand holding up her Time Lord mood pendant, which had begun to come to life again as a slightly telepathic being came to life inside of her. Owen reported on the science of it to her, on the triple helix of the DNA, on the two strong hearts, on the fact that it was a female. Oh, all of that science was comprehensible and made sense and she was glad that things were going so well. But she worried about the non-science things. She worried about her slightly telepathic little girl, with no slightly telepathic being around her to read her moods or feed her moods to read. Would she never figure out how the telepathy worked, without the Doctor there to learn from? Would she ever learn _anything_ , without the Doctor? Sure, it was one thing to tell your child that she was this special, remarkable species, but if she never knew what it was like to travel through space and time, then what difference would it make to her? It was really just talk, wasn’t it? 

Rose worried _incessantly_ about these things.

She worried incessantly about other things, too, of course. Did the Doctor brush Athena’s hair properly? It could get so unwieldy if not brushed properly. Did he sit and play with her dolls with her? Or did he try to force her to tinker instead? Did he watch Brem to make sure that Brem didn’t try to do too much, be too strong, do too much denying? Or was he too in denial himself to watch out for the kids? 

She was terrified of what could be going on without her. She tried not to think of it, but it was impossible. She tried not to be depressed, for the baby’s sake, but every morning she got out of bed took an act of willpower that astonished her. As worried as she was about everything else, she was worried about herself as well. 

“Rose!” her mother called one day, when Rose was already far enough advanced in her pregnancy that she was being slowed to a waddle. Months kept ticking by, she thought, sitting in the conservatory listening to her mother call for her, and there was no word from the Doctor, only silence and stillness. Sometimes she could have thought she’d dreamed him, if she didn’t have a huge abdomen that she owed to him.

“There you are,” her mother said sunnily, entering the conservatory, and Rose tried to smile at her. “I’ve got a surprise for you. Listen.” She practically bounced her way across the room, holding a small package to her, and then fiddled for a bit with the stereo. Music suddenly filled the air. 

Rose tipped her head, and a slow smile spread over her face. “Is this Ian Dury?”

“I’m right, aren’t I? The Doctor listened to him, didn’t he? I remember him babbling about Ian Dury’s brilliance when I asked him to play Christmas music that time. I looked all over for it for you, Rose, turns out Ian Dury wasn’t a big hit in this universe. But I thought it would help you feel a bit better.” Her mother sat next to her, studying her worriedly. 

Rose kept her smile on her face, although the effort ached. “Thank you,” she said. “It’s a brilliant gift, I love it.”

“Do you, though?” Jackie asked, anxiously. “I know you’re worried about the baby, growing like this, without the Doctor. So I thought maybe we could make an effort to surround her with Doctor-y things. Like the music he liked. Maybe we could try to find the books he read, would that help?”

“You talk about him in the past tense,” said Rose. 

Her mother blinked. “I what?”

“Like he’s dead. I know you can’t help it, it’s probably healthier, it’s just…I always present-tense him in my mind. That’s probably not a good thing.”

“Oh, Rose,” she said, and smoothed her hair. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I thought the music would make you happy.”

“It does. Oh, it does. My hormones are all a mess, you know. I try to laugh and I cry.”

“I’m sure he…he’s…” Jackie trailed off helplessly, because she had no idea what to say. 

“I’m just tired of missing them, Mum,” said Rose, wearily, leaning her head back. “So tired. I thought, after Bad Wolf Bay…I mean, why would the bay be called ‘Bad Wolf’ unless it’s supposed to _mean_ something?”

“But what does ‘bad wolf’ mean?” asked Jackie, perplexed. 

“It’s…It’s a sign. It’s a link between me and the Doctor. A sign that I can reach him. The words ‘bad wolf.’ They followed us through space and time so I would know that I could get back to him. So why would the breach come out at Bad Wolf Bay unless…? I just keep thinking that and thinking that and I’m wondering if I’ll still be thinking it when I’m 85.”

“How can two words be a sign, Rose? How can they follow you? It doesn’t make sense.”

Rose smiled sadly. “I know. Never mind. It doesn’t matter. He used to read Dr. Seuss to the kids, before they were born. Do they have Dr. Seuss in this universe, do you know? I’d like especially to read her _Green Eggs and Ham_. It’s my favourite.”

“We’ll see about _Green Eggs and Ham_ ,” said Jackie. 

“Thank you so much for Ian Dury. Really.”

Jackie squeezed Rose’s hand. “Oh, any time.”

**********************

It wasn’t the sort of thing she felt comfortable broaching with Pete. Pete took his role as head of Torchwood very seriously. He was always careful not to give an impression of favouritism toward Rose, and Jackie knew that if she asked him a Torchwood-related favour, he’d hesitate. There was nothing else Pete wouldn’t give her if she asked, but she didn’t think he’d give her Torchwood. 

So she went to Mickey. It was easy to hide the visit from Rose, who was now bedridden in the final stages of her pregnancy, reading endless amount of Dr. Seuss to the unborn baby. Dr. Seuss had been even _more_ prolific in this universe, which she still found hard to believe. Rose was enjoying discovering the new stories. It was harder, however, to hide the visit with Mickey from Pete. They met for a furtive cup of coffee in a generic coffee bar near where Mickey lived, on a Saturday afternoon when Mickey wasn’t working but Pete was. 

“So,” said Mickey, after they’d settled with coffees. “This is weird. You’re makin’ me nervous. I’ve never known you to ask any guy to coffee…innocently…” Mickey finished, lamely. 

“And what’s _that_ supposed to mean?” demanded Jackie. 

“Nothing,” Mickey denied, quickly, and took a sip of his coffee, which was far too hot and scalded his mouth although he pretended it didn’t. 

Jackie frowned a bit but moved on. “It’s about Rose, really.”

“How is she? Pete says she looks like a beached whale.”

“She does,” Jackie agreed, distractedly. “A few weeks ago, Mickey, Rose told me this thing about the words ‘bad wolf.’”

“Bad wolf,” Mickey echoed, thoughtfully. “I’ve heard that before, out of Rose. I think…The graffiti, that time we had to use the truck to open up the TARDIS. I think it said ‘bad wolf.’”

“She said the words were signs, Mickey. A sign she could get back to the Doctor, could reach him.”

“I remember her acting that way about it, yeah. Once she saw the graffiti, she knew she could get the TARDIS to fly. Remember?”

“Mickey, when we went to that beach with her in Norway…The place was called Bad Wolf Bay.”

“Now what are the odds of that?” mused Mickey. 

“Rose was saying that she thought it was the old sign, that that’s why she keeps waiting for the Doctor to show up. But what if we’re going about it the wrong way? We’ve been waiting for him to do something heroic. What if he can’t? ‘Bad wolf’ was a sign that _she_ could get back to _him_. While we’ve been waiting for him to come to her.”

“So? What are we supposed to do?”

“I don’t know,” Jackie said, helplessly. “But you’re the one who works for Torchwood. Can’t you think of something, on this side? It wasn’t so long ago you lot were flittin’ back and forth like it was the bloody Chunnel.”

“But that was different, Jackie. The breach was open then. It was easier to get across it. And even then we were destroying the planet.”

Jackie shook her head, not liking the answer. “There’s got to be something we can do. _Something_. It’s a sign she can get back to him, but we’re the ones who’ve got to be doin’ something. We can’t just wait for him. We’ve got to help him, from here.”

“Jackie.” Mickey looked at her, as if he wasn’t quite sure she grasped the magnitude of what she was saying. “If he comes back, she’ll go with him, you know. She’ll leave, and she’ll never be able to come back. Is that what you want?”

“I’ve had months to think about this, Mickey. And I’m happier with a Rose I never get to see but who I know is happy, than with a Rose I see every day but who I know is miserable. Mickey, please.” Jackie leaned over the table at him, intent. “It’s her family now, not us anymore. She’s got babies who need her. And she loves him. Please help me get her back to the right universe.”

Mickey looked at Jackie, feeling possibilities close off around him. He supposed, they were never possibilities to begin with. Jackie was right about one thing: Rose loved the Doctor. She always had, and he suspected she always would, no matter what she tried to do to move on. 

Mickey sighed a bit. “Pete—”

“Pete can’t know,” Jackie cut him off, swiftly. “Not yet. We need to figure this out ourselves first. If it’s even a possibility. Can’t you give it a bit of thought, poke around a bit, before we worry Pete or Rose about it?”

“I don’t even know where I’d begin,” said Mickey. 

Jackie thought for a second. “I think I’d start with Bad Wolf Bay.”

**********************

The Doctor wasn’t making any progress. Every time he took a step forward, he took two steps back. He couldn’t see his way through the labyrinth of scientific equations that kept cancelling each other out. He grew increasingly frustrated. There were times when he would spend an entire hour sprawled on the couch, trying to _think_ and really just staring at the photo Jackie had taken of them over Christmas, their flushed faces crowded into the frame. There were times when he wanted to hide that photo away, because of how paralyzed it made him feel, but the kids would have had a fit. 

The kids, unexpectedly, where thriving. It turned out they just adored Sarah Jane. Brem had apparently made it his personal mission to paint every room in Sarah Jane’s house. They finished a turquoise kitchen and had moved on to a bright blue living room. 

“The paint color’s called Martian Skies,” said Brem. “But I don’t think they’ve ever seen a Martian sky, because Martian skies aren’t _blue_.”

“No, they aren’t,” agreed the Doctor, absently, studying in dismay the state of Brem’s beloved green jumper. Threadbare under the best of circumstances, it was now covered in splotches of paint. “Don’t you think you should pick a new jumper?” suggested the Doctor. 

Brem looked horrified. “You sound like Mum!” he accused. 

The Doctor blinked in surprise. “You’re right. I do. Sorry.” He paused. “Keep your jumper.”

Brem nodded, pleased, and went on with his careful examination of the paint chips Sarah Jane had found for him. 

The kids simply refused to admit the possibility that he wouldn’t be able to get them back their mother, a possibility that worried him more and more as the weeks passed. Brem and Athena, with innate enthusiasm, kept believing that _next week_ would be the magical week when he would figure it out and Rose would come back and everything would be perfect again. Their utter faith terrified him--nd reminded him so strongly of Rose that he almost couldn’t bear it. There were days when he was desperate to drop the kids off at Sarah Jane’s, to be out from their under their unerring trust. And then he spent all the time without them unable to focus because the TARDIS was too lonely and empty and quiet and he missed them. 

Time, relatively speaking, passed Brem’s fourth birthday. The Doctor mentioned it once, hesitantly, the suggestion of a cake, and both kids had refused to entertain the possibility of a birthday without Mum. Their panic at this, felt keenly in his head, was so vehement that he never brought the subject up again, and he tried not to worry as time kept marching toward Athena’s second birthday. Stuck, he thought. They were stuck. 

“Maybe we should take a trip,” he suggested to them, finally, while they were watching television one night. “Just a little one. Maybe to Thhhhhhhhhhhmyr, for some sweets. Would you like that?”

“No,” answered Brem, without looking away from the television. 

“Come on,” wheedled the Doctor. “A little trip? You wouldn’t like that? You like travelling even more than I do.”

“We’re not taking a trip without Mum,” said Brem, still not looking at him. 

Athena, sucking on a bottle, watched the interplay with wide brown eyes flickering in between the two of them. 

“It wouldn’t be…Just a hop, skip, and a jump. Blink and you’re back. You know, maybe we could go to Julk Ikgerrn, for Sarah Jane. They have the best paint in the universe there. Some of the paint changes colours randomly, some of it smells like vanilla, some of it tastes like strawberries. Wellllllll, something very like strawberries.”

“No,” said Brem, firmly, and looked at him then, and for a moment the Doctor blinked and had to stop himself from flinching. Brem had always had eyes that made you think he knew the secret of the universe. The Doctor had never before thought that the secret of the universe contained uncharitable things about _him_. “We are not going to learn how to travel without Mum. I won’t let you. We are going to stay here until we get her back.”

The Doctor sighed and closed his hands around tufts of his hair. “Brem, what if—”

“Stop it,” said Brem. “Don’t.” He suddenly seemed very much like a four-year-old. Whatever the secret of the universe actually was, at the moment it was huge with supplication. 

“Fine,” he said, after a moment. “Fine. We’ll stay here for a little while longer.”

Athena took the bottle out of her mouth. “Until Mum comes back,” she said, as if Brem had not made that point perfectly clear. 

The Doctor scrubbed his hands over his face. He needed to tell them, he thought. He needed to tell them that he couldn’t get her back for them, that every avenue he pursued led him straight to a dead end, that he could see no way he would succeed here without destroying two universes. But he couldn’t do it. He kept trying to convince himself that they were right, that tomorrow would be the day he would suddenly see the solution, and there was no need to break their hearts if he was on the verge of fixing everything. But the bed no longer smelled of Rose, and her clothes in her wardrobe were musty, and he was starting to think that he couldn’t accurately remember what she’d tasted like, and he thought that he could live with his kids in this ghostly limbo for another nine hundred years and still never be able to say out loud that she was not coming back. 

He lowered his hand. Athena was watching him anxiously, and he was amazed by how much his answer meant to her, how she would take it as truth without any further examination. And he smiled at her and said, “Yeah, until Mum comes back.” And she smiled back and snuggled into him. 

Brem glanced over at them, their eyes meeting briefly. But Brem looked back at the television before the Doctor could get a read on that lurking secret of the universe. 

**********************

They had not realized how much the Doctor’s alien IVs kept Rose alive during the late stages of her pregnancy. It wasn’t until her blood pressure plummeted, until she was so weak that they couldn’t rouse her into complete consciousness, that they realized how dire the situation was, and then Owen performed the C-section right away, two months early. They had nearly waited too long, Rose so dreadfully weak that she had little energy to heal, and she was wracked by a high fever when an infection set in, during which she begged deliriously for the Doctor and Jackie, running damp cloths along her face, promised that he was coming and hoped that Rose would pull through. 

She did, the fever finally breaking on the third day, and she opened her eyes on her mother and smiled weakly before closing them again. “What I wouldn’t give for those magic alien potions of the Doctor’s,” she groaned. “Sonic screwdriver isn’t a bad way to go, it turns out.”

“Are you in much pain?” Jackie asked, concerned. 

Rose shook her head. “It’s not bad. Where’s the baby? Can I see her?”

“I’ll get her for you.” Jackie disappeared, and reappeared a few minutes later with a nurse wheeling an incubator. 

Rose made a soft exclamation, struggling to sit up. “Is she okay? What’s wrong with her?”

The nurse smiled kindly. “Just small. Just needs a bit of help breathing. She’ll be fine.”

Rose leaned over the incubator. There was a plastic sleeve opening for her to stick her hand in, and she did, running her hand carefully over the golden fuzz over the baby’s tiny head. The nurse withdrew, leaving them alone to bond. 

Rose looked up at her mother. “The nurse…The two hearts…”

“We’re in a special wing. Utmost secrecy. Supposedly. Pete trusts her.”

“What about Owen?”

“Owen doesn’t trust anybody.”

“Fair point.” Rose looked back at the baby, traced her finger delicately over the fragile fist. “She looks just like me.”

“That’s what we’ve all been saying.”

“How long was I out?”

“Three days.”

Rose lifted her eyebrows. “Wow. I’m sorry, little girl. You must have thought I’d abandoned you.”

“What will you call her?” asked Jackie. 

Rose felt her breath stall, as she stared at this red, wrinkled infant. “I…I don’t know, Mum. I can’t…I can’t bring myself to…He’s so particular about names, Mum. Every name I think of seems so…so… _human_. Just not right for her. And he’d be…I can’t name her without consulting him, Mum. How can I?” Rose looked up, begging to be agreed with. “How can I? You know how he is about it.”

“Alright,” Jackie soothed her, afraid she might have a full-fledged breakdown on her hands. “You don’t have to name her right now. We’ll wait.”

Pete, when he found out, thought the idea was silly, and that Rose ought to name the child. He thought Jackie should insist on it. Jackie was reluctant to push Rose when her hormones were such a mess, when she could so easily tumble into a dark depression. She kept telling Pete that he needed to give it a couple of days, weeks. _Months_. 

 _[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/63979.html)_  



	20. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (21/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (21/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)     
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Sarah Jane, OCs  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for Brem and Athena. They're all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)   , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)   , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

Many, many thanks to [](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)   for being a very patient beta, through all of those tear-jerking chapters. Many thanks also to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)  , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) \- [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) \- [Ch. 9](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html) \- [Ch. 10](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53186.html) \- [Ch. 11](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53469.html) \- [Ch. 12](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/56634.html) \- [Ch. 13](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/57087.html) \- [Ch. 14](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/59445.html) \- [Ch. 15](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/60277.html) \- [Ch. 16](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61335.html) \- [Ch. 17](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61914.html) \- [Ch. 18](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62079.html) \- [Ch. 19](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62834.html) \- [Ch. 20](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/63261.html)

 

 

_Chapter Twenty-One_

 

“Brem.”

 

Brem was busy trying to add just the right touch of Polished Ivory to the appalling shade of Mosaic Pink that Athena had chosen. He had Juanes blasting in the background, his most recent music discovery, plucked from Dad’s vast collection of music that Dad insisted was all organized alphabetically, although it had to be an alphabet Brem hadn’t been introduced to yet. 

 

“Brem.”

 

“Brem, your sister’s talking to you,” said Sarah Jane, turning down the blasting Juanes music. 

 

“I’m trying to mix the paint, Athena, what’s the problem?” he asked, impatiently, studying his new concoction and wondering whether it was any more bearable than the Mosaic Pink on its own. Less Polished Ivory? More? He wondered if he could come up with some sort of algorithm to help. An algorithm to determine aesthetic pleasure. The idea intrigued him. 

 

“Dad’s late,” said Athena. 

 

Brem looked up for the first time. Athena was clutching Pinky, and looked terrified. Brem considered his sense of time. “You’re right. He is late. But only by a few minutes.”

 

“He’s flat,” said Athena, which forced Brem to stop and think, his mind reaching for his father. 

 

She was right. He was flat. Normally, Dad sat in the corner of their minds, there if they needed comforting, soothing, support. But he was…flat. It was the only word for it. 

 

Brem stood, wiping his hands on his jeans and forgetting about the paint project for the time being. “I’m sure it’s nothing,” he said, forcing his voice to be cheerful for Athena’s benefit, although Dad had never been late before, not even a little bit. He looked at Sarah Jane. “We should go to the TARDIS,” he said, hoping he sounded nonchalant and blasé, so that he wouldn’t alarm Athena. 

 

And then he set off purposefully, out of the house and crossing the back garden to where the TARDIS was parked. He dug in his pocket for his key. When he had been a baby, there had always been a TARDIS key pinned somewhere to his person. Now that he was old, he was trusted to carry the key in his pocket, although he’d never had to use it before, and he was secretly excited that Dad had suddenly gone missing, so that he could importantly turn his key in the TARDIS door while Sarah Jane and Athena watched. 

 

Dad was not in the control room, and he called for him, before it dawned on him suddenly what the flatness was. “He’s sleeping,” he realized. It happened so seldom that it had taken him a while to catch it. 

 

Athena seemed determined to find him and make sure for herself. She wandered off into the rest of the TARDIS, calling for him. Brem would have followed after, except that something made him pause by the monitor on the console. There was a small stepping-stool tucked under the console, one he’d never noticed before, and he tugged it over to the controls so he could step up on it and see the monitor. 

 

“Brem?” said Sarah Jane, curiously, as he leaned over the monitor, his eyes running over the Gallifreyan that was dashing across it.

 

Brem tilted his head at it, ignoring Sarah Jane. 

 

“Oh, there you are,” Sarah Jane said, in relief, and Brem knew his father had entered the control room. “Athena was worried about you.”

 

Brem turned slowly. Dad had picked Athena up, had her settled against his hip, and his eyes were on Brem. “Why didn’t you tell us?” Brem asked. 

 

“Brem,” his father said, and Brem recognized the tone, the stop-what-you’re-doing-now tone, but ignored it. 

 

“Mum’s been punching holes through from the other universe. You’re through. All you need is someone to hold the breach. All you need to do is call a couple of other Time Lords and we can get Mum. Why didn’t you tell us?”

 

“Because it’s not that simple, Brem.” His tone was tight and clipped, sounding not at all like Dad. 

 

“It _is_ that simple,” Brem insisted, gesturing at the monitor. “I can _read_ , Dad. All you have to do is call someone—”

 

“I’m not calling anyone—”

 

“Now is not the time to be too proud to ask for help—”

 

“It is not a matter of pride—”

 

“One Time Lord would be enough. I mean, preferably two, but if you can bring yourself to find just one who could help keep the breach open—”

 

“I am not finding any other Time Lords, Brem—”

 

“Why not?” Brem demanded, and he felt like he was being reckless. 

 

“Because there aren’t any other Time Lords!” his father shouted. “I killed them all!”

 

The control room was completely silent, save for their breaths, both of them quick and heaving. Brem backed as far as he could against the console, his hands tight around the railing, as he stared at his father, words turning over in his mind. He was not used to being shouted at it. The words could have been completely innocuous, nothing more than, _Do you want cereal for breakfast?_ , and Brem would have felt cold inside, but Dad’s particular exclamation made him feel like ice had been poured into him. It was an insane thing to say. It couldn’t possibly be true. 

 

And yet he knew, at that moment, it was. He had always assumed he couldn’t feel any other Time Lords because he wasn’t related to them. But he saw now how unlikely that was: no aunts, uncles, cousins, nothing. It was because there were no other Time Lords left. He couldn’t move, couldn’t even think to process the words, just stared, until his father put Athena down, unceremoniously, turned, and stalked out of the control room. 

 

Athena began to cry, but Sarah Jane did not move to pick her up. Brem had the impression she was frozen as well. And Brem forced himself to move, to rouse himself out of this and find his father and _mend_ this, because they were never going to get anywhere if he let himself get stuck in ice. He stepped off the stepping stool, followed his father to his parents’ bedroom, knocked on the door. When he received no answer, he opened it and walked in, which he knew was an indication he was doing the right thing, or the TARDIS would have locked him out. 

 

Dad was slumped deep in the armchair by the fireplace, one hand at his temples. “Oh, Brem, not now,” he said. “ _Really_ not now.”

 

Brem said nothing, walked over to the chair and clambered onto his father’s lap. Dad did not push him away--but he didn’t cuddle him, either. 

 

Brem stared at his face, for the first time thinking that it was entirely impossible he knew nothing about his father. He couldn’t understand why he would have killed everyone. He longed to ask him, to have it be justified, to know that there had been a reason. But he sensed that now was not the time to push for the whole story, that Dad had never had any intention of sharing any of it so soon. 

 

“You didn’t kill all of the Time Lords,” Brem told him. 

 

“Brem.” He sighed. “I know that you want to believe—”

 

“No, I _know_ you didn’t kill all of the Time Lords. Because there’s me. And there’s Athena. You weren’t really the end. You’re kind of the beginning. We’re not alone. Because we’re _us_.”

 

For a moment, there was no reaction. And then his father crushed him into a hug, so tight he momentarily had the wind knocked out of him. But he hugged back, trying to prove his point, and, after a moment, said, into his father’s shoulder, “I can do this, Dad.”

 

“Can do what?” he asked. 

 

He pushed back, resisting the hug, so he could look his father in the eye. “I can hold the breach open while you fetch Mum.”

 

“No, you can’t,” his father said, without blinking an eye. 

 

Brem bristled. “Yes, I _can_.”

 

“You said it would be preferable to have two Time Lords, but you’d settle for one. And now you think _you_ can do it? You’re four years old.”

 

“So? I’m a _Time Lord_ , remember? A four-year-old Time Lord isn’t like a four-year-old _human_. And I _can_ do it. Athena can help me.”

 

“Athena’s a baby.”

 

“So it’s a good thing that I’m old, then, isn’t it?”

 

“You aren’t old. Four is not old. Talk to me in a hundred or so years, and then maybe I’ll consider letting you hold the breach open.”

 

“I can hold it open _now_. We don’t have a hundred years. We need to get Mum back _now_.”

 

Dad shook his head. “No. No, no, no. The answer is **no**.”

 

Brem decided to ignore him. “All we have to do is build me the equipment. The computers and stuff. So I can read it while you take the TARDIS through. The sprolometer, of course. And the digicoil meter, right?”

 

“Brem, we’re not doing any of this. You’re not holding the breach open for me while I go through.”

 

“Tell me what other option we have,” Brem demanded. “You know that we don’t.”

 

His father sighed. “But—”

 

“I can do this. I know I can. You have to trust me.”

 

“I trust you, more than I probably should. It doesn’t change the fact that you’re four years old and you want your mother back and you’re willing to—”

 

Brem pouted. “That’s not fair.”

 

“What isn’t fair?”

 

“Accusing me of not thinking clearly. _You’re_ the one who’s not thinking clearly. You didn’t even notice that you had other Time Lords around to help you.”

 

“I don’t have other Time Lords. I have _children_.”

 

“Yes, but we’re _your_ children. You know we’re brilliant. You know we can do this.”

 

“No, I don’t. If I ‘knew’ it, I’d let you do it.”

 

“You’ve been doing things on your own so long, you’ve forgotten how to let other people help.”

 

“I let plenty of people help. Grown, adult people.”

 

Brem pouted again. “At least help me build the equipment, and then you can quiz me, and I can prove it.”

 

His father studied him closely, eyes flickering over his features. “Your mother would never forgive me if I let you do this, be responsible for this.”

 

“I’d rather Mum never forgive you than you never give Mum the chance to get angry about it.”

 

“I’d rather we get Mum back _and_ not have her be angry with me.”

 

“Welllllll, sure, that’d be ideal,” shrugged Brem. “But we should take what we can get, don’t you think?”

 

“I think you’re mad. I think this is the quite possibly the worst idea ever, out of nine hundred years of bad ideas.”

 

“I think it’s the only thing that even has a chance of working, and you know it. You’ve known it for a while. You can’t find another way. Nobody could. _Please_. I can’t let us live this life without Mum, knowing that I _could_ have got her back for us but I _didn’t_.” Brem played his trump card then, making his eyes wide with innocence. “Don’t make me feel guilty about that for the rest of my life.”

 

His father groaned and dropped his head back against the chair. “Your mother,” he said, “was dead wrong when she thought letting you read every psychology book in the library was a good idea.”

 

Brem grinned and wriggled off his father’s lap, aware he’d won. “I’ll go gather us some materials.”

 

“Absolutely, magnificently, fabulously _wrong_ ,” Dad shouted, as Brem skipped out of the room. 

 

**********************

The Doctor knew he had to tell Brem that no, absolutely not, no matter how much he blathered on about guilt and loneliness and beginnings and whatever else manipulative tripe he’d seized upon, he was most certainly _not_ going through the breach with Brem the one responsible for holding it open. The problem was that Brem was, well, _Brem_ , and the longer the Doctor sat in the armchair, by the empty fireplace, the more he thought that maybe Brem could do it. He would never have thought this at any previous time in his life, that a four-year-old could successfully hold open a parallel world breach, but the truth was he could never have imagined a creature like Brem, either. Maybe Brem could do it. Maybe this was the way. The only way. 

 

At first, when the first hole was punched through from the other universe, he’d been jubilant. His brilliant, gorgeous, _brilliant_ Rose had figured this out for him! The walls between the universes were solid on his side, because he’d been there to make sure it sealed properly. It made sense that it was weaker on _her_ side, that it would be on her side that the breach should happen. All he had to do now was keep the breach open, long enough to get himself through it, get Rose, and get back. It would have been easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy in the old days. And next to impossible now. Where would he find someone to stay in this universe to keep the breach open? What were his other options? He could think of none. The initial jubilation had faded, back into the same labyrinthine depression he’d been stranded in before. 

 

But now, just like that, there existed the possibility, all of a sudden, that he _could_ find a way out. It was, in a way, kind of the most obvious solution of them all. Brem could do it. It was really true that Brem might actually be able to do it. 

 

He pulled himself out of the armchair. The TARDIS was deserted, save for a heap of scraps he knew Brem had foraged for to make the equipment he insisted he was going to need, and he wandered up to Sarah Jane’s house. He felt better than he had in weeks, he had to admit. It was madness to put all of this on the shoulders of a four-year-old. Complete and utter madness. But it didn’t seem that way at the moment. It seemed like sheer genius, like he’d rather have Brem in charge than any other being in the universe, even if other Time Lords _did_ still exist. 

 

They were painting a room an appalling shade of pink, and the Doctor leaned on the doorjamb and watched them for a second, unnoticed. Athena was seated, carefully running her paintbrush along the edge of the moulding, and the idea amused the Doctor. They let Athena do the _detail work_? Both Sarah Jane and Brem were working with rollers, Brem on the bottom half of the walls, Sarah Jane on the top half. Brem’s face was puckered with concentration as he painted, as he sang along to the music he was blasting. Juanes, the Doctor realized. How _had_ the kid come up with that? Of all the music in the TARDIS, to grab that to paint by? 

 

“It’s…an interesting colour,” he ventured finally. 

 

Athena looked at him and beamed. “I chose it.”

 

“You don’t say,” he replied, pretending to be shocked, as he smiled at her. It was astonishing to him how naturally sunny Athena was, how easily she forgave him everything. He knew he’d terrified her by shouting. He knew also she’d never bring it up again. She was the very opposite of Brem. Brem hadn’t pushed the issue, but he knew that, once he’d decided it was time to know, he’d never let the subject drop until he’d laid bare every excruciating detail about the Time War. It was not a conversation the Doctor relished. 

 

Brem was watching him, and he turned his attention to him. “Let’s talk,” he said. 

 

Brem grinned brilliantly, dropping the roller carefully into its tray before following the Doctor. The Doctor led them to Sarah Jane’s kitchen, and sat at the table. Brem took the hint and took the other seat.

 

“Did you see the stuff I managed to pull together?” he asked, enthusiastically. “We may need to stop at a couple of planets, I think—”

 

“We are not building you equipment from scratch,” the Doctor interrupted him. 

 

Brem sighed, as if dealing with his father was a tremendous burden for him to bear. “I thought we’d settled this.”

 

“We didn’t settle anything. I never actually told you that I was going to allow you to do this.”

 

“You’re very preoccupied with my age,” Brem grumbled. 

 

The Doctor smiled at him. “The reason we’re not building you equipment from scratch is because I know someone who has all this equipment already.”

 

There was a moment of astonished silence. “You do? You _know_ someone? Who?” And then, after another beat, “You’re really going to let me do it?”

 

“I am,” he affirmed. 

 

Brem grinned, plainly delighted. “We’ll get Mum back. You’ll see.” There was another pause. “Who has all this equipment I can use?”

 

The Doctor smiled and stood. “Come on. Let’s go tell Sarah Jane that we’re leaving.”

 

Athena gifted Sarah Jane with a doll before they left, a token of the highest regard by Athena’s standards. Sarah Jane accepted it with a great solemnity and promised to make sure it was tucked soundly into bed each night, a promise that tickled Athena, whose dolls were like her and never slept. 

 

She hugged Brem good-bye, thanking him for the all the painting, and remarking, “You are both exactly and not at all like your father.”

 

“We’re complicated and Gallifreyan,” Brem replied, wisely. “We can accomplish that.”

 

Sarah Jane walked them up to the TARDIS, keeping pace with the Doctor while the kids ran ahead. “When you get Rose back, promise you’ll all come to dinner.”

 

“Absolutely,” he said. 

 

“You will get Rose back.”

 

The Doctor smiled. “You know, I think we just might. Brem is so sure. And there is something about his being so sure that’s just…infectious.”

 

“Even if you don’t get her back, you must bring the kids back to visit. None of this falling out of touch for years at a time.”

 

“No,” he agreed. “Not anymore.”

 

“But you’ll get her back,” Sarah Jane finished, hastily. 

 

The kids had run ahead of them into the TARDIS. The Doctor paused by the open door, looking back at Sarah Jane and then swooping her into a hug. “Thank you,” he said. “For everything.”

 

And then he stepped into the TARDIS and closed the door behind him. The kids looked at him expectantly from beside the controls, curious as to their next destination. 

 

And so it came to pass that the Doctor went to visit Jack Harkness. 

_[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/64484.html) _   



	21. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (22/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (22/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)     
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Jack, Owen, Martha, Gwen, OCs  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for the kids. They're all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)   , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)   , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

Enormous thank-you to [](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)   for the beta and the E-mails of Distraction. Many thanks also to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)  , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) \- [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) \- [Ch. 9](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html) \- [Ch. 10](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53186.html) \- [Ch. 11](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53469.html) \- [Ch. 12](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/56634.html) \- [Ch. 13](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/57087.html) \- [Ch. 14](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/59445.html) \- [Ch. 15](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/60277.html) \- [Ch. 16](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61335.html) \- [Ch. 17](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61914.html) \- [Ch. 18](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62079.html) \- [Ch. 19](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62834.html) \- [Ch. 20](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/63261.html) \- [Ch. 21](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/63979.html) 

_Chapter Twenty-Two_

 

“We,” the Doctor announced, dramatically, for the children’s benefit, “are going to visit Captain Jack.”

 

They had been raised on fairy tale stories about Captain Jack, epics that Rose wove for them on lazy Vortex days. So the Doctor’s sentence got an instant reaction. 

 

“Captain Jack?” Brem exclaimed. “He’s _real_?”

 

“Of course he’s real. Didn’t your mother tell you he is?” The Doctor began flipping levers, setting their course. 

 

Brem thought for a second. “Does that mean Father Christmas is real, too?”

 

The Doctor looked at him in alarm. There were many reasons why Rose was going to run him through his remaining regenerations when she got back, but he thought he was _definitely_ not long for this world if she came back to children who no longer believed in Father Christmas. “Oi,” he said. “Of _course_ Father Christmas is real.”

 

“I told you!” Athena stuck her tongue out at her brother, clearly pleased with her triumph in that particular debate. 

 

Brem had already lost interest in the Father Christmas question. “What planet does Captain Jack live on?”

 

“This one,” answered the Doctor. 

 

“Where?” asked Athena. 

 

“Cardiff,” said the Doctor. 

 

There was a moment of silence. 

 

“ _Cardiff_?” repeated the kids, wrinkling their noses in identical confusion. 

 

The Doctor was amused. They wanted Jack to live in Siberia, or Monaco, one of those exotic Earth places that their grandmother was always going on about. Cardiff was a huge letdown. “What’s in Cardiff?” he quizzed, patiently. 

 

They realized it at the same moment. “Oh,” said Brem.

 

“The rift,” said Athena. 

 

“Exactly. The rift.” The Doctor swung the dial, tossing the TARDIS toward Cardiff. “Now. There are some things I should probably tell you about Captain Jack.” The TARDIS landed smoothly. It was, after all, just a quick hop, skip, and a jump to Cardiff. “First, he’s probably going to be angry with me.”

 

“Angry with you?” asked Brem, curiously. “Why?”

 

“Did you do something to upset Captain Jack?” cried Athena. “Because how will you fight him?”

 

“What do you mean, ‘how will I fight him’?” demanded the Doctor, slightly irritated.

 

“Captain Jack is the best fighter in the entire universe,” Athena clarified, wisely. “He’ll kill you. He’ll rip you to shreds.”

 

“You don’t stand a chance,” Brem agreed. The Doctor stared at him. “What?” asked Brem, defensively. “You aren’t exactly good at fighting, Dad.”

 

For the first time, he wanted Brem to be around when he was saving the universe. “Let me tell you something,” he said. “I could take Jack Harkness any day of the week. And twice on Sundays.”

 

The kids looked at him like he was delusional. Damn Rose and her ridiculous, idealizing, fables about the man. He sighed, and glanced at the monitor. Jack had appeared on it, running flat-out toward the TARDIS, and the Doctor held back his flinch as he looked at him. 

 

“The other thing about Captain Jack,” he continued, switching the monitor off and looking back toward the kids. “It might be…hard to look at him.”

 

“Hard to look at him?” said Brem. “Why?”

 

“Is he ugly?” asked Athena. “He can’t be ugly. Mum says he’s the handsomest man in the universe.”

 

“Bloody hell,” muttered the Doctor. “He is _not_ the handsomest man in the universe.”

 

“Who is?” asked Athena, with interest. 

 

“I don’t think it’s you,” said Brem, “in case that was going to be your answer.”

 

“That was not going to be my answer,” retorted the Doctor, indignantly. He paused. “But it’s more likely to be me than him.”

 

There was a knock on the TARDIS door, startlingly polite. All three of them stared at it. People seldom knocked on their front door. Once, Rose had decided she’d wanted to do Halloween with the kids. It had been a disaster of epic proportions. Athena, displaying no imagination whatsoever, wanted to be a princess, and wore a sparkly pink dress and tiara, despite the Doctor’s attempts to get her to dress as something more interesting, like a jelly baby, which Rose had not supported. Brem, on the other hand, had displayed far too much imagination, insisting on an abstract approximation of a costume meant to represent Bremsstrahlung radiation. Every trick-or-treat at a house had resulted in blank looks as Brem carefully explained the modern art installation he called a Halloween costume. But the worst of it was, the kids had asked afterwards why nobody ever knocked on _their_ door asking for candy. 

 

It was this that the Doctor thought of, incongruously, when the knock sounded. 

 

“Behave. Be polite. Don’t say anything about how he’s hard to look at.”

 

Both kids continued to look bewildered by this particular directive, but he didn’t have time to explain further. He opened the door on Captain Jack Harkness, this swashbuckling hero of epic proportions that his kids worshipped in the same realm as Father Christmas. 

 

Jack looked at him for a long, inscrutable moment. “Doctor,” he said, finally, with a little inclination of his head in greeting. 

 

The Doctor mirrored the head incline. “Captain.”

 

“Good to see you,” said Jack. 

 

“And you,” the Doctor rejoined, politely, and then stepped aside, gesturing into the TARDIS. “Won’t you come in?”

 

Jack entered, then drew himself up short at the sight of Brem and Athena, both of whom gaped at him for a second, and then reacted. Athena slid her eyes away and wrapped her arms around herself with a small shudder. Brem took a couple of steps back, blinking rapidly in an effort to keep his eyes focused on him. But neither of them said anything untoward. 

 

“This is Brem and Athena. Say hello to Captain Jack, kids.”

 

“Hello,” they chorused, with a bit less energy than they usually did. 

 

“Now, say good-bye to Captain Jack, because he and I have to talk.” The Doctor lifted Athena into his arms, pulled Brem by the hand out of the control room and to the nursery. 

 

“Dad,” said Brem, slowly. “Why—”

 

“Not now, Brem. I’ll explain everything, just not now.” He opened the nursery door. Madrid came bounding up, barking his displeasure, and the Doctor realized that he’d locked him in the nursery earlier and forgotten to let him out. “Sorry, boy. Stay here with the kids.” He set Athena down and closed the nursery door, locking it behind him and leaving the children in the capable hands of the TARDIS. He took a deep breath and ruffled his hair before going back into the control room.

 

Jack was standing by the door. He looked anything but amused. His jaw was clenched with rage. “Lemme get this straight,” he said, as soon as the Doctor re-appeared. “You left me stranded on an empty spaceship in the year 200,000 so you could run off and make Time Babies with Rose.”

 

“No,” said the Doctor, hands in his pockets. “That isn’t why.” 

 

“That just happens to be exactly what happened. Where _is_ Rose? I can’t believe she let you _do_ that. I’d like to give her a piece of my mind.”

 

“That’s not going to happen.”

 

“Why not? Do you have her locked up somewhere, only let her speak to those you choose? Barefoot and pregnant with the next one?”

 

The Doctor was so furious he was calm. He had always rather liked that sort of fury, so much cleaner in its depth and precision. “Huh,” he commented, his tone as light and cold as steel. “Everything you’re saying is completely and startlingly inappropriate.”

 

“Well, if I were you, I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for an apology. God knows I’d’ve been dead long ago if I’d done that.”

 

“I don’t know,” mused the Doctor. “I’ve got a respiratory bypass system. And you can’t die. So I think it’d be one hell of a breath-holding contest.”

 

There was a moment of silence. “You know,” said Jack. “How long have you known?”

 

“Ever since I ran away from you.”

 

“Ran away from me? So you admit that’s what you did.”

 

“I was never one for bravery, Jack. That was always you and Rose who thought that about me. It was this quaint, little story the two of you’d made up about me, that everything would always be okay as long as I was around. It’s the same quaint, little story I tell my children. It makes things easier until the day you realize it’s not true. Then it kind of all goes to hell pretty bloody quickly, wouldn’t you say? We need to talk, you and I.”

 

“Talk?” echoed Jack, sounding stunned. 

 

The Doctor turned without a word, heading to the kitchen, where he went through the soothing exercise of making them tea. 

 

“You’re… _different_ ,” said Jack, from the doorway. 

 

The Doctor measured out tea leaves. “Regeneration,” he said. “It’s this little trick Time Lords have. But I’m sure you know that. Torchwood knows everything about Time Lords, don’t they?”

 

“I don’t mean that,” said Jack. “You’re _different_.”

 

“K equals f minus l,” he said, setting sugar onto the table and looking for cream. 

 

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

 

“It’s an equation. It has to do with fission reactions. When f minus l equals one, you get a continuous chain reaction. Before you get to one, you get nothing. You just can’t sustain a fission reaction. You’re just…You’re just nothing.” The Doctor poured hot water into the teapot, set it on the table. “I feel like I spent nine hundred years of my life with a k less than one.” He sat at the table. “And then the Time War happened, and I hit critical mass, and it’s been this endless nuclear chain reaction since then. I haven’t been _still_ in years. So yes, it’s probably fair to say I’m different. I’m different now than I was with you. I’m different now than I was a few weeks ago. I’m different now than I was yesterday.”

 

“I just meant that you’ve got kids and you want to have a chat,” said Jack, from the doorway. “I didn’t need a philosophy lecture.”

 

“It wasn’t philosophy,” replied the Doctor, pouring out the tea. “It was nuclear fission. I could have started quoting Heidegger, but you would’ve gotten bored listening to me drone on in German.”

 

“The TARDIS would’ve translated.”

 

“The TARDIS doesn’t translate Heidegger. He’s actually less impenetrable in a language you don’t understand than he would be in English. Come have tea.”

 

Jack hesitated, and then sat opposite him at the kitchen table. The Doctor concentrated on dropping sugar into his tea, letting Jack look around at the strangely domestic space. 

 

“Where is Rose?” asked Jack, clearly picking up on the emptiness that throbbed through the TARDIS even now, with so many people in it. 

 

“It’s a long story.” The Doctor blew on his tea, then put the cup down without taking a sip. “She’s trapped in another universe, Jack. The universe the Cybermen came from.”

 

“What do you mean, trapped?”

 

“Remember when your brilliant organization thought it would be a tremendous lark to try to _destroy the entire planet_ by letting in _as many bloody Cybermen_ as they could? When I closed the walls between the universes, I had to close them so that it could never happen again. Rose fell. She slipped through to the other universe, before I could save her. And I’d already started the chain reaction that was going to close the wall between the universes. I couldn’t stop it. K equalled one.” He did sip his tea then, because he had to. He had been taken by surprise by the potency of the anger he still harboured toward Torchwood. He realized he shouldn’t have been. He’d just forgotten, caught up in feeling sad and dejected and depressed, that he was also _angry_. 

 

“I didn’t have anything to do with the Cyberman thing,” Jack said, after a moment of silence. 

 

The Doctor had to talk about something, for just a little while, that didn’t make him think of Rose reaching for him as she fell toward the Void. He set his teacup down with a hard clink. “Let’s talk about you. Where did your story leave off?”

 

Jack blinked. “What?”

 

“On the Gamestation. What’s the last thing you remember, before you woke up unable to die?”

 

“Daring a Dalek to go ahead and exterminate me.”

 

The Doctor winced. “That’s not really what I meant.”

 

“You had sent Rose away. That’s what you did. I don’t understand—”

 

“She came back. She drove the TARDIS back to the Gamestation.”

 

“How?”

 

“She looked into the heart of the TARDIS. No one’s meant to do that. If a Time Lord did it, he’d become a…vengeful god. She absorbed the Vortex, and it granted her her heart’s desire.”

 

“To save you,” said Jack. 

 

The Doctor looked across at him. “To save _us_ ,” he corrected. He took a deep breath and leaned back in his seat. “She turned the Daleks to dust. It was the most…startling thing I’ve ever witnessed. And then there was you. She was…She _is_ so very human. It’s the most wonderful thing about her, how everything she does is so magnificently human. She brought you back to life, but she couldn’t control it. She brought you back forever. She didn’t mean to, Jack. But she did.”

 

There was a moment of heavy silence. Jack had prepared his tea but he had yet to sip it. He stared into it, then looked up at the Doctor. “And you knew, immediately? How?”

 

The Doctor thought for a moment. “Inside my head, Jack…Time is…complicated, right? You know that. It’s anything but linear, anything but _set_. You, however. You’re different. You’re this unchanging point. A _fact_. You stand out, you…Time isn’t meant to be that way. It hurts just to look at you, you’re so glaringly… _wrong_.”

 

Jack was silent for a moment. “Gee,” he said, finally. “Thanks.”

 

“I don’t mean it to be…You noticed? The way the kids reacted? It’s because of that, Jack. You’re _off_ to us. I need you to understand that to explain…Rose was going to die. I took the Vortex out of her to save her, but it meant that I was dying instead. Regenerating. My cells were already breaking down, re-making themselves. I was in no state to deal with what you suddenly were. My only thought was that I had to get Rose onto the TARDIS and away, make sure she was alright, make sure…You understand it’s a blur, Jack? I wasn’t well, I came down with regeneration sickness, it was a while before I was even conscious again.”

 

“So, what?” asked Jack. “The two of you just… _forgot_ about me?”

 

“No. No. Never. Jack, if you knew…Rose talks about you constantly. Brem’s middle name is Jack. She asked me about you, after we left the Gamestation, and I told her you were fine, rebuilding the Earth. I mean, it’s what you _were_ doing. I wasn’t lying. I just didn’t tell her what she’d done. I never did. She would have felt bad, she would have felt guilty, and it wasn’t her fault, I didn’t want her to…” The Doctor sighed, frustrated. “There were so many reasons why I didn’t…I tried to tell myself that it was for noble reasons, like protecting her from herself. And partly it was, it really was. But there were so many other reasons not to go back and visit you, not to tell her the truth. 

 

“I meant what I said before, about being in the middle of this nuclear chain reaction. Before I knew it we had children and this remarkable life that I couldn’t even begin to…And by then I’d started doing everything I could to try to keep us, well, _still_. I was running flat-out to try to keep us in one place. We were happy, and I didn’t want to admit that I hadn’t been completely honest with her about…I didn’t want to lose her. At the heart of it all, I just didn’t want to lose her. You have no idea what I would do not to lose her, Jack. I have a four-year-old son I’m going to let hold open the breach because I can’t handle the idea of never seeing Rose again. Sorry,” he said, abruptly, staring at the oven because it was there and ddidn’t have eyes and didn’t stare back. “I got off the topic. Which was you. And how I never…I’m sorry.”

 

“I have been waiting 140 years for you to show up and explain to me what was going on with me. I thought you’d have a good reason for it, and all you can come up with is, ‘I was too busy being _happy_?’”

 

It did boil down to that, didn’t it? He shrugged a little bit. And then said, “At least it’s a reason. I’m not sure, even in my recent past, I would have even given you the courtesy of that. Unless the reason was, ‘Because I’m the Doctor, and it’s just what I decided to do.’” 

 

Jack acknowledged the truth of that with a silent sip of his tea, although his eyes were still reproachful. 

 

“And anyway,” remarked the Doctor, striving to sound casual, “you joined an organization formed entirely to destroy my life. An organization, I must say, that succeeded at that pretty spectacularly. So don’t think you didn’t exact some revenge.”

 

“I didn’t join Torchwood to destroy your life,” Jack said, after a moment. “I joined it because it was the best way to keep track of you. Because you didn’t seem too inclined to drop in for a chat and a cuppa. Until now.” Jack paused. “We didn’t know about the kids. You hid them well.”

 

“I wasn’t trying to. I hadn’t any idea I had a top-secret government agency stalking me. When I think of the number of times I let Rose wander around Earth with the kids, and I never…Well, nothing ever happened. I suppose I should be grateful for Torchwood’s utter incompetence.” The Doctor scratched the back of his neck. “I need your help.”

 

Jack looked amused. “That’s arrogance for you. You leave me stewing for over a century, drop in, say, ‘Sorry about that. But could you do me a favour?’”

 

He shook his head. “It isn’t for me. It’s for Rose. And the kids.”

 

“What does that mean?”

 

“I can get Rose back. She’s punched a hole through the universes for me to get at her.”

 

“Did she? Without destroying all of us?”

 

The Doctor was momentarily annoyed. “Don’t you notice _anything_ down there in your secret lair? What sort of job are you doing monitoring the rift anyway?”

 

“We’re Torchwood, Doctor. What did you expect?”

 

The Doctor sighed heavily. “I can get through to the other universe and grab Rose. I just need someone on this end watching things, to make sure the breach stays open until I can get back.”

 

“You want me to watch the breach for you?” Jack sounded surprised. 

 

“God, no,” frowned the Doctor. “Haven’t we just established how amazingly incompetent you are at this sort of thing? Brem’s going to hold it open for me.”

 

Jack remained surprised. “The little kid?”

 

“Yes. He’ll be fine. He’s bright enough for it, I know he is.” The Doctor knew he sounded like he was still convincing himself of this, but he couldn’t help it. “He’ll need to borrow your monitoring equipment, though, to do it.”

 

“You’re going to disappear from this universe and leave a little kid in charge of things until you get back? _This_ is your brilliant plan?”

 

“It’s more of a plan than I usually have,” said the Doctor. “And it’ll work. You don’t know Brem. Brem’ll get me back here through sheer force of will. The universe will whimper and cower at the idea of Brem Tyler turning his displeasure upon it.”

 

**********************

 

The Doctor explained this all to Brem, in the broadest strokes possible. That Jack had the necessary monitoring equipment, and was going to let them use it. Brem listened to all this carefully, studying Jack at long intervals, cautiously, as if he were squinting directly into the sun. Athena had started to get used to the hardness of Jack Harkness as well, listening to the plan as her father set it out. Jack was a little astonished by how routine the whole scene appeared to Doctor and children, when it seemed so unbelievable, sooutside the realm of possibility, to him. But here was the Doctor, all patient and fatherly and affectionate, as he spoke to his attentive, obviously adoring children. 

 

“And I’ll help Brem?” said Athena. 

 

“Absolutely,” the Doctor assured her. “You’ll be the most valuable right-hand man of all time.”

 

“Right-hand woman,” said Athena. 

 

“Of course,” smiled the Doctor. “Silly me.”

 

“You have clothes on,” said Brem to Jack, abruptly. 

 

“What?” asked Jack, startled. 

 

“In all of Mum’s stories, you’re naked.”

 

Jack stared. “What sort of stories is your mom telling you, kid?”

 

“The problem with you is that every story about you, X-rated and child-friendly, ends with you naked,” drawled the Doctor. 

 

“I wouldn’t exactly call that a ‘problem,’” grinned Jack. 

 

“What would you call it?” asked Brem, seriously. 

 

“Too much information, is what I would call it,” said the Doctor, standing. “Come on. Let’s go check out this equipment, make sure it meets your exacting standards, Brem.”

 

Jack followed them into the control room, went to open the door. 

 

“What are you doing?” asked the Doctor. 

 

Jack looked back. “I thought you’d want to—”

 

“Have a bit of style, Captain,” chided the Doctor. “A bit of flair!” He danced around the controls, flipping and pushing and spinning. “Give your crack team a bit of a show! Liven up their humdrum day!” The Doctor grinned as he spun and brought the mallet down on one final button, and the TARDIS shook as it dematerialized and rematerialized in the Hub. 

 

“Okay,” said Jack, happily. “Let’s go meet the team.”

 

They opened the door and stepped out into the Hub. 

 

“Hello,” said the Doctor, cheerfully. “I’m the Doctor, and this is Brem and Athena.”

 

Jack was doing introductions, among the gaping crowd of people staring at them, but Brem and Athena, heads back, said at the same moment, cutting him off, “ _Look_!” and pointed at the pterodactyl. 

 

The Doctor frowned. “He doesn’t eat puppies, does he? Madrid stays on the TARDIS,” he informed the kids, who nodded, awestruck. The Doctor turned back to Jack. “Now, then. The equipment, if you please.”

 

Jack led them. Despite his comments about Torchwood, the monitoring equipment was almost first-rate, and the Doctor was pleasantly surprised. Brem surveyed it, his eyes roaming over it, and nodded once. 

 

“I can work with this,” he proclaimed. 

 

“Yeah? Maybe with a stool or something to stand on?” The Doctor glanced behind him at Jack, who glanced behind him at one of his team members—Owen, the Doctor thought he’d been called--who muttered about being an errand boy as he fetched the stool for Brem. 

 

“Athena needs one, too,” the Doctor said mildly to the belligerent Owen, who complained, “Bloody hell,” but fetched another one.

 

Brem and Athena stood up on their stools, and the Doctor began rapidly rattling things off at them, constructing situations. Brem and Athena responded just as rapidly, pointing at the places where they would fix the problems he was throwing at them, what they would do to anticipate other problems that might crop up. They never once hesitated. He never stumped them. Where had they picked all this stuff up? He didn’t know, but he was relieved at their unflappable self-assurance. They could do this, he thought. Together. They would do this together. 

 

Afterward the women on Jack’s team, apparently thrilled to have children to dote upon, offered them chocolate chip cookies, an offer that Brem and Athena eagerly accepted. While the kids ate, Jack explained to his team exactly what was going on. 

 

One of the team members, Martha, said, “So we’re going to let these kids hold open a breach with the possibility of destroying two universes?”

 

“It doesn’t really have that possibility,” said the Doctor. “Not really. Not now that the hole has already been punched without destroying the universes. Keeping it open for a tad longer won’t do any harm. Welllllll, much.”

 

“Anyway,” said Brem, concentrating on dunking his cookie into the milk he’d been provided, “I can recite the square root of every number from one to one thousand to the fifth decimal point. Wouldn’t you rather have someone who can do that holding the breach open? Instead of you lot?” Brem looked at Martha as he took a sip of milk, then placed the glass down, leaving him with a milk moustache that made the Doctor smile and think of how very furiously and completely he loved his children. 

 

Nobody on the team seemed to have a response to what Brem had said, and the Doctor stood up. “Well. I’ve got to see to the TARDIS, then. It appears we’re going to be taking a trip.”

 

Brem and Athena watched him go into the TARDIS. Brem, reaching for another chocolate chip cookie, said, “You really don’t have to worry. I’m very clever, and my dad is _brilliant_. We’ll be fine.”

 

“This mother of yours must be pretty amazing,” said the woman called Gwen, looking at them with eyes full. “For you to go through all of this.”

 

“She’s the best mum in the universe,” said Athena, loyally. 

 

“Yeah,” agreed Brem. 

 

“Plus, she knows how to do my hair.” Athena sighed heavily. “ _Nobody_ does my hair like Mum.”

 

“We can give it a try,” suggested Gwen. 

 

Athena regarded her for a moment, very seriously, then replied primly, “I’d rather you didn’t.”

 

Jack didn’t stop laughing for a while, not even when Gwen glared at him. 

_[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/65460.html) _   



	22. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (23/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (23/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)     
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, Jack, Martha, Gwen, Jackie, Mickey, Pete, OCs  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for the kids. They're all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – [](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)   pointed this out to me a couple of weeks ago, and I completely forgot to share until now: Last month, [the inventor of chaos theory passed away](http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080417/tsc-us-science-lorenz-e123fef.html). Now you lot don't know yet why this story is called what it's called, but I promise you the explanation is coming. For now, this chapter is for Edward Lorenz. I'm sure he'd be thrilled to death at his theory being used as the title for an incredibly long Doctor Who babyfic.

The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)   , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)   , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

Thanks to [](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)   for the beta and the Red Sox tickets. Many thanks also to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)   , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) \- [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) \- [Ch. 9](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html) \- [Ch. 10](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53186.html) \- [Ch. 11](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53469.html) \- [Ch. 12](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/56634.html) \- [Ch. 13](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/57087.html) \- [Ch. 14](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/59445.html) \- [Ch. 15](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/60277.html) \- [Ch. 16](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61335.html) \- [Ch. 17](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61914.html) \- [Ch. 18](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62079.html) \- [Ch. 19](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62834.html) \- [Ch. 20](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/63261.html) \- [Ch. 21](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/63979.html) \- [Ch. 22](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/64484.html)   
   


_Chapter Twenty-Three_

 

 

“Dad,” said Brem. 

 

The Doctor poked his head up over the console, where he was checking to make sure everything was in working order. Brem’s voice sounded small and young, uncharacteristic for him, and he _looked_ small and young, standing at the entrance to the TARDIS. “Bremsstrahlung,” he said, rolling the syllables of the name around in his mouth in an attempt to make him smile. 

 

He succeeded only very slightly.Brem walked over to him, half-hearted smile ghosting around his lips, and then he said, suddenly, blurting it out, “I don’t want you to go.”

 

The Doctor went still, and not for the first time wondered what the hell he was doing. He wanted Rose back. But was it really worth it to put the kids through this first? 

 

He sat in the captain’s chair. “If you do not want me to go, I will not go. If you do not want to do this, we will not do this.”

 

Brem stood in front of him, chewing on his lower lip, looking oddly out of his element. “But it’s the only way to get Mum,” he said. 

 

“We’ll come up with another way. We will.”

 

“We won’t,” said Brem, mournfully. “There _is_ no other way. And you need her. And Athena needs her—”

 

“Hey.” The Doctor cut him off. “Do _not_ do this because you think Athena and I need it.”

 

Brem looked at him. “But this is what you do all the time, isn’t it? You make these impossible choices. For other people.”

 

“It’s what _I_ do. It is not what you do.”

 

“Tell me why you killed everyone.”

 

The Doctor hesitated. Then he leaned back in the chair. Brem climbed up beside him, a comforting presence at his side. “There was a war. With the Daleks. We were losing. So I…I could destroy all of the Daleks, and save the universe, but to do it I’d have to destroy all the Time Lords.”

 

“And that’s what you did,” said Brem, softly. 

 

“Yeah. I killed all of them, and it turned out not to serve any purpose.”

 

“Why do you say that?”

 

“Because I didn’t destroy all the Daleks. They keep coming back.”

 

“Yeah, but the universe is fine, Dad. It’s not overrun by Daleks. You saved it.”

 

The Doctor said nothing. He sat next to his son and wondered if he’d do it again, back in that dreadful decision-making moment. He thought possibly he would--not only because it had saved, in some small way, a catastrophic war, but also because it had somehow led him to this strange, amazing life he was leading right now. 

 

“I can do this,” Brem said, after a second. 

 

“You don’t have to.”

 

“I _want_ to. I want Mum back. And I know I have to do it. I’m just a little…” Brem trailed off. 

 

The Doctor gave him a sidelong look. “Brem?”

 

“I’m scared,” he admitted, in a tiny voice. “I’m scared you won’t come back and I…How will I take care of Athena?”

 

He didn’t ask the question he should have asked— _Who will take care of us?_ —and it was that that had the Doctor turning to him, tipping his head to force him to look at him. “I will not do this, then. I will not leave you.”

 

“But you have to!” Brem cried. “You have to go get Mum back. You just…” He launched himself onto the Doctor suddenly, his face buried in the suit coat. “You have to promise me you’ll come back. _Please._ With Mum. Without her. Just please come back. I don’t know if I can be without you _both_.”

 

“I will come back to you, Brem,” he vowed. “I will. I would never leave you and Athena.” 

 

“I love you,” Brem said against him. 

 

“I love you, too.”

 

“Tell me it’s going to be alright.”

 

As if that would actually mean something, the Doctor thought. He did something then that he seldom did, but he pushed his way into Brem’s consciousness, drenched him in love and comfort, and if anything did go wrong, he wanted Brem to remember this, this moment, to draw upon in his future. “Everything will be alright.”

 

Brem stayed where he was for a moment, hugging him fiercely. Then pushed away. “Okay,” he said. “I’m ready.” 

 

“You’re sure?” the Doctor said. 

 

Brem nodded. “I’m positive.”

 

“Here.” The Doctor slid off the captain’s seat, removed part of the grille off the floor, and rummaged around for a moment before pulling out a Juanes CD and handing it to him. “Music to paint by,” said the Doctor, “music to save your mother by. Same thing, right?”

 

Brem grinned. “Don’t tell Mum that.”

 

“Never. Let’s go.” The Doctor stood, and he and Brem headed out of the TARDIS. 

 

“Hello there, Captain,” Jack greeted him, jovially, dropping a captain’s hat on his head. “You ready?”

 

Brem grinned, pushing the captain’s hat back on his head, and nodded. 

 

“Good.” Jack straightened from the crouch he’d fallen into to address Brem. “Athena may kill herself if we leave her much longer with Gwen, Martha, and Tosh.”

 

“Wellllllll, we can’t have that,” said the Doctor. “Let’s rescue her.”

 

Athena did indeed look miserable. She had been perched in somebody’s desk chair, and people had slathered her in make-up and were now painting her nails. Athena was terribly girly, loved pink and princesses and dolls, and even, the Doctor suspected, would have loved a makeover like this, if her mother or grandmother or even Sarah Jane had initiated it. However she, like Brem, had a violent dislike for people who babied her. 

 

“Well,” said the Doctor, smiling at her. “Don’t you look…beautiful.”

 

Athena scrambled violently out of the desk chair and raced to her father. “I look _awful_ ,” she wailed, running into his arms. 

 

“Aw, you look lovely, sweetheart!” Gwen protested. 

 

The Doctor kissed the tip of Athena’s nose. “Let’s wash this off you,” he said, and carried her in the direction Jack indicated to the bathroom, where he wet a paper towel and carefully dabbed blush and eye shadow off Athena’s face, while Athena kept up a running commentary of the horrors that had been perpetrated upon her. “Well,” he said, when he was finished, and picked her up and turned her so she could see her face. “I fixed it, see?”

 

She broke into a smile, that tongue-tip smile of her mother’s. “Thanks!” she said. 

 

The Doctor, heart aching, kissed her cheek. “You look gorgeous.”

 

“So do you,” Athena assured him, and then looked at him. “I’m sure Mum didn’t mean it when she said Captain Jack was the handsomest man in the universe.”

 

“I appreciate the support,” the Doctor smiled at her, then carried her out and set her down next to Brem. He looked down at them, and they regarded him solemnly. “So,” he said. “Here we go. Ready?”

 

They nodded. 

 

“Good. I’ll be back with Mum before you know it. Right?”

 

“Yes,” they chorused. 

 

“In the meantime, I’m leaving Madrid with you.” The Doctor indicated the puppy, who had been left off the TARDIS and was sniffing about the Hub. “Don’t let the pterodactyl get him.”

 

They nodded. 

 

“Good,” he said again, and then suddenly sank down, staring at them. They looked back at him, eyes wide. “I…” he began, and then suddenly worried his voice was going to break, he stopped and cleared his throat before trying again. “I have spent most of my life thinking that I knew better than everyone else, that I could swoop into a place and fix things better than they were before, and mostly what I ended up doing was causing all of these brilliant catastrophes. So it’s astonishing to me that, after all of that chaos I caused, quite unexpectedly, the universe gave me—let me have— _you_. You are… _miracles_. Not a word I use lightly. You are the most remarkable things in existence. The two of you. Remember that. Always.” He stood up suddenly, forced joviality into his voice. “Right. See you in a little bit,” he said, knowing it sounded ridiculously lame in view of what he’d just told them. 

 

He turned, walking to the TARDIS. Jack went with him, and the Doctor said, staring at the door, “I didn’t even think about what would happen if…” He turned abruptly to Jack. “Jack—”

 

“I’ll take care of them. I will. But I thought you told me Brem can do this.”

 

“He can. He will. I just…” The Doctor sighed, digging through his pockets until he found a piece of paper and a pen so he could scribble Sarah Jane’s name and number. “If something happens, call her,” he said, thrusting it at Jack. “She’s an old friend of mine, and the kids know her, and she’ll help, I think.”

 

“Fine.” Jack accepted it. “Sarah Jane,” he read. “Is she hot?”

 

The Doctor rolled his eyes as he opened the TARDIS door. 

 

 “There’s something you should know,” Jack said, abruptly. 

 

The Doctor turned back, expectant. 

 

“You’ve never asked, not specifically. But I think you should know it. Rose was always yours. I was never any sort of threat, I was never going to swoop in and steal her. She only had eyes for you. And she was like that even before you looked the way you do now.”

 

The Doctor looked at him for a moment. Then he said, “I won’t be long,” and closed the TARDIS door, with a smile. 

 

Jack turned away, walking back over to where Athena was stationed on her stool, watching the equipment in front of her anxiously. Brem was busy forcing a CD into the computer behind him, and turned the song that resulted way up to try to hide the distinctive noise of the TARDIS de-materializing. And then he turned to Athena, and they both launched into action, two tiny figures leaping over the controls, shouting directives to each other, using words Jack had never heard before but understanding everything completely. Everything went quiet abruptly, Athena throwing all her tiny weight on a lever to keep it off to the left, despite its desire to veer right. Brem froze above the controls, tense. 

 

“Wh—” Jack began, and was cut off by high-pitched whine that sounded much like an alarm. “What’s that?” he asked, as Brem flinched. 

 

“A distress signal from the TARDIS,” Brem answered, standing still and listening to the whine. 

 

“Well, what does it mean?” asked Jack, staring at the motionless little boy and praying he wasn’t panicking. “Shouldn’t you do something?”

 

Brem shook his head. “No. We expected that. It’s an automatic distress signal. It’s not really from Dad. He’ll push the TARDIS through it.”

 

“We should turn the music down,” said Martha, because it was clashing with the whining and was also some slow-beat sad song that seemed to be dragging them down. 

 

“Don’t touch the music,” Brem snapped at her, freezing her as she moved toward it. 

 

The whining stopped as abruptly as it had started, and Athena let go of the lever she’d been holding. 

 

“He made it,” said Brem, sounding breathless. 

 

Jack realized he’d been holding his breath, and let it out with a gasp. “How do you know?”

 

“It’s empty,” said Athena. 

 

Jack looked at her blankly. 

 

“We can feel Dad. Here.” Brem pointed to his head. “And he’s not there anymore. That must mean he’s in Mum’s universe, not ours.”

 

Jack refrained from pointing out the other possible explanation for why their father’s presence had suddenly disappeared. 

 

Brem turned and advanced the CD off the sad song to the next track, an upbeat salsa. And then sat heavily onto his stool and stared fixedly at the equipment in front of him, waiting for something else to happen. 

 

**********************

 

The day started like every day had since they had taken The Baby home. She had stayed in the incubator for a month, and Rose had practically moved in beside her, refusing to leave her. But then they had taken her home, and their lives had fallen into this routine. Rose was still on maternity leave from Torchwood, so her days were wrapped in The Baby. At first, she had tried to survive on the schedule she and her mother had used in the Doctor-less days with Brem, but Pete refused to hear of it, hiring instead an overnight nanny who stayed up with the non-sleeping infant. 

 

Until Rose awoke in the morning and took over the task, as she did this particular morning, heading into the nursery to relieve the yawning nurse. “Hello, little one,” she cooed at The Baby. The Baby did not smile at her. She was not a smiley baby. To Rose’s eyes, she seemed depressed, although Rose worried she was just projecting onto the poor thing. “Let’s go down and make breakfast,” she said, as she did every morning, and carried The Baby down to the kitchen, where she fixed her iced tea. Only four sugars. The Baby had flatly refused to drink iced tea with anything less. Rose was sure she would really have preferred iced tea with seventeen sugars, or something ridiculous like that, but she was trying to keep things a bit reasonable. 

 

Rose looked down at The Baby as she sucked on the bottle, and tried out names for her as she often did. Ellie, possibly? Short for Electron? Minnie, possibly? Short for Minerva? None of them seemed to fit. None of them seemed close to right. All of them seemed like the sort of name the Doctor would immediately dismiss, were he there to have a say. 

 

The Baby was past three months old now. Rose kept waiting for her to speak, sure those first words must be right around the corner. But nothing seemed forthcoming. 

 

And then she said, quite suddenly and quite clearly as Rose took the empty bottle out of her mouth, “Mum.”

 

Rose looked down at her in delight, grinning. “Oh, that was _spectacular_ , darling,” she encouraged, dashing into the dining room with her, where her mother and Pete were at the breakfast table. “Mum,” Rose said. “Watch. Go on, darling. Show Grandma.”

 

“Grandma,” said The Baby. 

 

“Is she talking?” asked Pete in disbelief. 

 

“Right on schedule!” Rose affirmed, thrilled. 

 

“On schedule?” Pete echoed.

 

“It’s a complicated Gallifreyan schedule,” said Rose, as she sat at the breakfast table and pulled a piece of toast over to her. 

 

“I guess it is,” said Pete, as he stood. “Alright, that’s me off to work, then.” He paused to kiss Jackie lightly, then brushed a kiss over The Baby’s head. “See you lot tonight. We’ll have to have a celebration in honour of first words.”

 

“We’ll have to have cake,” said Jackie, smiling at The Baby. “Would you like that, sweetheart? Cake?”

 

The Baby, as usual, stubbornly did not smile. 

 

Jackie sighed as Pete left the room. “She’s a tough nut to crack, that one. Stubborn as Brem, in her way.”

 

“She misses her father,” Rose said. “She misses him, and she doesn’t even understand what she’s missing. It’ll get better, as she gets older and she starts to understand.” It was not the first time she’d begun considering an indefinitely long future of raising this baby without the Doctor. But it still jarred her every time she said something like that. Rose looked outside. It was January. Nearly a year now since she’d been in this universe. They’d celebrated Christmas, had it come and go, and Rose had thought of the previous Christmas, of the Doctor determined to make it the best Christmas ever, of the frolic on Hippolita, the kids kissing her under the mistletoe. “I may take The Baby for a walk,” she said. 

 

Jackie lifted her eyebrows, and Rose knew she was thinking _Now? It’s freezing outside_ , but was relieved when her mother said nothing. Rose liked to have The Baby in the vastness of the outdoors. She wanted a child who thought horizons were way off in the distance, who didn’t feel hemmed in by houses that were the same size on the inside as the outside. 

 

She carried her upstairs, wrapped her in a heavy winter outfit, pulling a hat snug over the blonde fuzz of her hair. And nearly dropped The Baby when she smiled at her. It was her father’s smile, startlingly so, and it had been so long since she had seen it that Rose was almost astonished that she recognized it so immediately. She stared at The Baby, uncomprehending, when The Baby suddenly giggled.

 

Rose picked up her pendant, which was glowing bright yellow for the first time since The Baby’s birth. “What—” she began, and then something scalded the skin just above her breast. Rose clawed at it, pulling out a glowing TARDIS key that she stared at for a full minute before she let herself register what was happening. 

 

She looked down at The Baby. “We’re awake, right?” 

 

The Baby laughed, plainly delighted. 

 

Rose, disbelieving, never remembered afterward running to find her mother. She just remembered she was suddenly in front of her, panting, and Jackie always said afterward that she’d shouted for her so desperately that she panicked Jackie, who thought something had gone horribly wrong. 

 

“He’s here,” Rose gasped.

 

Jackie blinked. “What?”

 

Rose shook the TARDIS key. “ _He’s here_.”

 

Jackie stared at the key. “It worked,” she whispered. 

 

“What worked?”

 

“I was having Mickey…You said the bad wolf thing was a message _you_ could get back to the Doctor. I thought maybe it had to come from here. I’ve been having Mickey try to get through to the Doctor. And it actually _worked_.”

 

Rose stared at her. “You and Mickey did that for me?”

 

“Rose. Of course we did.”

 

Rose hugged her fervently. “We’ve got to get to Torchwood. We’ve got to figure out if we can locate where the TARDIS landed.”

 

And then, after that, everything became a blur again. Rose never remembered the drive to Torchwood. It seemed she blinked and she was in front of Mickey, Mickey saying, “Let me guess. You’re interested in the whereabouts of a big, blue box.” He grinned at her. “Bad Wolf Bay, babe. Where else would it be?”

 

“There’s a jet, on the runway, ready for you to go,” Pete said, suddenly, from behind her. 

 

“Thank you.” Rose threw her one free arm, the arm not still clinging to The Baby, around Mickey, kissed his cheek. Did the same to Pete. “Thank you, thank you.” She looked between the two of them. “You’ll come with me? To see me off?” And then, for the first time in a year, the tip of Rose Tyler’s tongue showed between her teeth as she grinned.

_[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/65590.html) _   



	23. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (24/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (24/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)     
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, Jackie, Mickey, Pete, OCs  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for the kids. They're all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – In which many reunions take place, and a long-overdue first meeting.

The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)   , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)   , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

Thanks to [](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)   for being a brilliant beta and for distracting me always with wonderful fic of her own. Many thanks also to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly, and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)  , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.  
[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) \- [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) \- [Ch. 9](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html) \- [Ch. 10](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53186.html) \- [Ch. 11](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53469.html) \- [Ch. 12](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/56634.html) \- [Ch. 13](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/57087.html) \- [Ch. 14](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/59445.html) \- [Ch. 15](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/60277.html) \- [Ch. 16](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61335.html) \- [Ch. 17](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61914.html) \- [Ch. 18](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62079.html) \- [Ch. 19](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62834.html) \- [Ch. 20](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/63261.html) \- [Ch. 21](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/63979.html) \- [Ch. 22](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/64484.html) \- [Ch. 23](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/65460.html) 

_Chapter Twenty-Four_

The TARDIS crash-landed, and the Doctor had been attempting to brace for it, but was terribly unsuccessful. He was thrown hard to the ground and hit his head soundly enough to daze him, leaving him squinting up at the ceiling for a moment of breathlessness before he sat up to take stock, rubbing absently at what he was sure would be a first-class bump in a bit. The main power was out, but emergency lighting was on, which meant the TARDIS had enough left in her to get them out of this universe, which was all he needed. The Doctor was so relieved he could have wept. He pulled himself to standing, opened the TARDIS door and walked out. 

Bad Wolf Bay. It had to be. He’d recognize the place anywhere. He pulled his coat tighter around him. It was bloody _freezing_. But he’d be damned if he’d be anywhere but outside when Rose showed up. He hoped to avoid moving the TARDIS again. The power left was precious, and he wanted to preserve it. If Rose had been punching holes for him, she had to know he would come for her. She had to be looking for him. 

He closed the TARDIS door behind him and sank to the sand. Five and a half hours, he thought. He’d give her five and a half hours, before constructing another plan. 

It turned out that she showed up long before the five-and-a-half-hour deadline had expired. At first, when the car came over the horizon, he thought he was imagining the shape. When it stayed concrete, growing more and more distinct, he rose slowly. He tried to make himself move, when Rose—the unmistakable figure of _Rose_ —stepped out of the car and looked in his direction. But he was scared that if he moved he’d find it was a dream, that he wasn’t here after all. So he stood and watched as Rose dashed across the beach to him, and he didn’t move until she got to him, and then only to lift up his arms to catch her as she tossed herself headlong into him. 

She was laughing against his neck, and he could feel her breath, the brush of her lips, and he closed his eyes and kept himself standing and not collapsed into an overemotional heap through sheer force of will. “Oh, Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose,” he said, brushing kisses over her hair. 

She pulled herself away from him finally, grinned at him, and he studied her face for the first time. She looked the way he’d remembered, only a hundred times more beautiful. She felt the same in his arms, only a hundred times _better_. He drank her in, and then grinned crookedly to match hers. 

“Hello,” he said. 

“Hello,” she said back, and then leaned forward and kissed him. At first, it was almost tentative, as if worried he would disappear beneath her lips. And then it was suddenly desperate, a breathless war of tongues as they reacclimated to each other. 

He pulled back finally, gasping. “I was so worried I’d forgotten what you taste like.”

“Had you?” she asked. 

“Well. There’s the merest suggestion of vuyt in the background. It’s a spice kind of like your black pepper. I’d forgotten that. But other than that, I think I was pretty close. You realize that I’m going to have to kiss you once—or twice—a minute, though, just to make sure.” He punctuated the remark with kisses to demonstrate. 

“That’s fine,” she agreed, kissing him back. She had no idea what he was talking about with vuyt, and she didn’t care. She wanted him to go on babbling forever. She rested her forehead against his. “Say my name again.”

“ _Rose_ ,” he said, and she smiled, and lifted her head after a moment. 

“Where are the kids? Are they inside? I want to see them.”

“They’re home,” he said. “It’s kind of a long story, but I had to leave them. And we kind of have to go. We don’t have much time, we need to get back as quickly as possible.”

Rose nodded in understanding. “Okay,” she said, slowly, and adjusted his tie needlessly. “There’s something I have to—”

He wasn’t really paying attention, was squinting past her to the little coterie of people she’d brought with her. “Is that your mum? With the baby?” He turned his gaze back to her, eyes crinkled with his smile. “So what do you have? Baby brother or sister?”

Rose tried to smile in return. “Yeah, about that…”

The Doctor’s smile faded. “There’s nothing wrong with the baby, is there? Oh, no. It looks like your mother, doesn’t it? Poor thing.” He tsk’d dramatically. 

Rose laughed despite herself. God, had she _missed_ him. “No,” she said. “She looks just like me, actually. Except she has your smile, I just realized today.” The Doctor stared at her, looking uncomprehending. “Because she’s _ours_ ,” she finished, gently. 

The Doctor blinked. “You…We…” He moved away from her suddenly, walking toward The Baby. She didn’t get the impression he was angry, just that he was dazed. She followed after him, watched as he drew to a halt over the baby in Jackie’s arms and stared down at her, hands in his pockets. Rose heard The Baby mewl excitedly at the sight of him, beating her mittened hands in the air. 

“I never thought I’d be so happy to see you,” Jackie said to the Doctor, but the Doctor didn’t hear her. 

He was staring down at the tiny baby in Jackie’s arms. This baby who looked just like Rose. “She _is_ mine, right?” he asked, after a moment.

Rose shoved at him lightly. “You git. I spent a whole year desperate for you to come back for me, and it took you less than five minutes to make me want to go and hit you.”

“It’s just that she looks just like you.”

“That’s allowed, you know. Children can take after _either_ parent.”

The Doctor stared at the baby then and realized abruptly that _she_ was what he was feeling. That tiny nibble of Time Lord presence at the back of his mind, that he’d automatically dismissed as Brem and Athena. How could Brem and Athena reach him, across the Void? They couldn’t. This tentative Time Lord presence in his mind belonged to the little baby staring up at him. He grinned at her. 

“Would you like to hold her?” Jackie asked. 

“Oh, I’d love it,” he said, reaching for her. He took the baby and nuzzled her and sent her soothing thoughts. Her consciousness was a flailing mess, and his heart ached for how terrifying it must have been to feel so cold and empty and alone, without knowing how to begin to fix it. “Oh, little girl,” he breathed against her cold cheek. “I’m sorry. It will all be fine now, I promise.” He drew back from her, looked at Rose, who smiled at him. He was wearing that same look of astonished reverence he so often wore when he looked at their children, and she was realizing that she had forgotten the impact of that expression on his face. “What did you name her?” he asked. 

“I…I couldn’t name her. Nothing seemed right. We’ve been sort of…waiting for you.”

The Doctor smiled. “Oh, Rose, her name is obvious. Her name is Fortuna.”

It seemed obvious to Rose at that moment as well. Fortuna Tyler. It was perfect. Fortuna herself seemed to love it, squirming with delight in her father’s arms. 

“I’m so sorry I took so long,” he said to both of them. “But I would never have gotten through at all if it weren’t for you.” He beamed at Rose. 

“What do you mean?” she asked, smiling though bewildered. 

“I couldn’t get through on my side. The walls were too thick. It had to come from your side. Your punching holes. It was brilliant.”

“Oh,” said Rose. “I can’t take credit for that. That was Mickey and my mum.”

The Doctor, amazed, turned to them. 

“It was Jackie’s idea really,” said Mickey. 

The Doctor looked at Jackie, who was blushing with pleasure. “I jus’ thought…Well, Rose would’ve figured it out sooner or later but she was so broken up with missing you that—”

“Well, that settles it, then. She will be called Fortune Jacqueline.” He announced it with a great flourish. Rose watched her mother go even pinker. “Now. I am sorry to call this short, but we really have to get back, Rose. We haven’t much time.”

“I am sorry to hear you say you’re leaving again so soon,” said Pete. “Will you be able to come back to visit ever?”

“Not easily, no. In fact, I don’t relish coming back here for a good, long while. It was…difficult to get here.”

“I’ll miss you,” Pete told Rose, kissing her cheek. “And I’ll miss little Fortuna here.” He kissed the baby’s chubby cheek, and then looked earnestly at Rose. “Just be happy.”

“I will be,” Rose promised him. 

“Mick-Mick-Mickey,” said the Doctor, bumping fists with him. “Thanks for looking after her for me.”

“It’s your turn now,” Mickey told him, seriously. 

“I know,” the Doctor acknowledged. 

Rose flung her arms around Mickey’s neck. “Thank you so much. For everything. You can’t imagine how…We can never thank you enough.”

He returned the hug. “It was nothing, Rose. Have a safe trip home.”

Rose drew back, nodding, then turned to her mother. “Mum,” she said, her voice choked. 

And then Jackie said, abruptly, “I’m coming with you.”

Rose blinked. “What?”

“I have to. Pete,” she said. “You’ve been…I mean, we’ve been…Oh. She’s my daughter. And she has these children that just…I can’t let them grow up in that other universe and never see them. I can’t make that choice. I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize, until right this moment, that I really can’t do this.”

Pete stared at her, looking shocked.

Jackie turned briefly to Rose and the Doctor. “It doesn’t mean I’m going to wander around travelling with you lot. I just want to go back to my old life, to the way it was before. Can I do that?”

The Doctor nodded. “If you want that, I can take you home with us.”

“I want that.” Jackie turned to Pete, and her eyes were filled with tears now. “I’m sorry. But I want that.”

Pete nodded wordlessly, then leaned forward and kissed her before hugging her tightly. “Have a wonderful life, Jacks,” he said, against her hair. “You be happy, too.”

“Same to you.” Jackie pulled back, smiling at him through her tears. “Thank you,” she said. “For everything.”

“It was my pleasure,” he assured her, cupping her cheek. “All of it.”

She kissed the palm of his hand, then turned firmly back to Rose and the Doctor and the baby. “Alright,” she said. “I’m ready.”

“Let’s go,” he said with one last look at Pete and Mickey before he led the way back to the TARDIS. 

Rose walked into the ship silently but her eyes were swamped with emotion when she met his gaze, as he handed Fortuna over to her. He smiled, kissed her eyelids quickly. 

“Sit,” he directed. “Hold her tight. The ride’s going to be a bit of a mess, but I can’t help it.”

Rose nodded, clutching the baby to her. Fortuna continued to be in a good mood, gurgling happily at her mother. “Mum. Dad. TARDIS,” she said. How did she _know_ these things?

“She’s talking,” remarked the Doctor, as he raced around the console, flipping at things. 

“Just started today. How’s she already know the word ‘TARDIS?’”

It was such a relief to have him here, to ask him these questions. “It’s…complicated,” he said. “Hang on now.”

Not that he actually _answered_ these questions, she thought, as the TARDIS jerked into motion. The ride was indeed the worst she’d ever experienced. The TARDIS sounded awful, like she was groaning, and the Doctor seemed to be forcing her to move. He kept pleading under his breath, “Come on, come on, come on, come _on_ ,” as he raced around the console. Rose looked over at her mother, who looked a bit green around the gills. 

The TARDIS tipped, tilted, sickeningly, onto its side, and Rose realized that some sort of gravity stabilizer must have let go. She scrabbled at the nearest railing to keep from plummeting to the wall with Fortuna in her arms. The baby let out a brief, panicked sob.  The Doctor had clawed his way back to the monitor, was peering at it. “Come on, Brem!” he shouted, knocking at the monitor. “ _Fix_ it!”

And then, abruptly, the TARDIS straightened herself out, stopped making that awful grinding noise. The flight was suddenly almost smooth. The Doctor closed his eyes in relief. “Oh, good lad,” he said, and slid to the floor in exhaustion. 

Rose watched him. “What, exactly, do you have Brem doing?”

“You’ve been back all of ten minutes. Can we hold off on fighting for at least the first hour?”

Rose didn’t have time to counter that, because the TARDIS crash-landed hard, and she lost her grip on the railing. Luckily, she slid directly into the Doctor, who grunted as she collided with him but at least was a soft surface to cushion the blow. Fortuna wailed again, and Rose tried to shush her, as the TARDIS seemed to settle, whining about them. 

“What’s that noise?” asked Jackie. 

“Distress signal.”

“Why are we in distress?”

“We’re not,” he answered. “We’ve landed. Right where we should have, I think. She’s just not happy with me.” The Doctor had staggered to his feet, forced the whining to shut off as he adjusted the monitor view. 

“Where are the kids?” asked Rose, standing herself. 

He grinned, pleased, at the view of the Hub, then turned back to Rose. “Right outside that door.”

Her face lit up, like those Christmas trees she so loved, and she thrust Fortuna at him before throwing open the TARDIS door and rushing out. It was Athena who met her first, shouting “Mum!” as she threw herself into her arms, and Rose cradled her, breathing her in, stroking her hand through those tumbled Time Lord curls. 

“I missed you so much,” Athena said, pulling back to look at her. 

Rose smiled, cupping her cheek. “Oh, I promise I missed you even _more_.”

“I have so much to tell you,” Athena said. “First off, Daddy does _not_ know how to braid. He said he knows how to pilot a TARDIS single-handedly, and that that should make up for it, but it really doesn’t, Mummy.”

Rose laughed. “Oh, I know, but boys are just _hopeless_ , Theenie. Yes, Madrid, I see you.” Rose patted the puppy, who was bouncing around her, barking as he clamoured for her attention. 

“Oh, we taught Madrid to play dead. And we taught him how to play fetch. Except he doesn’t understand he’s supposed to bring the stick _back_. Brem says that’s the essential part of fetch, but Dad says that Madrid’s just playing by his own rules.”

“Where’s your brother?” Rose asked, looking beyond her. Brem was standing a short distance away, in that green jumper of his. The jumper was filthy. He really, desperately needed a new one. But she was so glad at that moment that he was not wearing a different jumper. 

“Just a second, Theenie. Say hello to Grandma,” Rose said, setting her gently aside and kneeling. “Hi, Brem,” she said, smiling at him. 

He walked over to her, looked at her for a long moment with solemn brown eyes. “Mummy,” he said, finally, and his voice broke on the word, and he was on her suddenly, crying huge, wracking sobs while he tried to burrow into her. 

She had the impression that he was crying all the tears he had never cried over her, and the thought made her gather him to her, rocking him in a way he hadn’t let her in so very long, much longer than the year they’d been separated in her timeline, lowering her face into him and sobbing with him. “Oh, Brem. I’m here. I am. _Here_.”

“Why are they crying _now_?” Athena asked her grandmother, wrinkling her nose. 

Rose looked up at her, smiling, pulling her into the embrace as well. “Just because we’re so happy.”

She felt the Doctor sit next to her. He took stock of the sobbing Brem, then said, “Look, kids. Come meet your little sister.”

Athena was immediately fascinated. “She’s like a doll!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands in delight.

“Except even more precious,” the Doctor told her. 

Brem had gathered himself, sniffling and wiping at his eyes as he lifted his head. “Oh, no,” he groaned. “Not _another_ one.”

The Doctor grinned at him. “Didn’t Athena turn out well? Admit it.”

“We lucked out,” said Brem. 

“Her name’s Fortuna, and if you come over here I’ll let you hold her.”

Brem considered a second, before scrambling over to sit beside his father. The Doctor transferred the baby carefully. “This is your big brother Brem. Who single-handedly figured out how to save you from the other universe, and who convinced me that it ought to be done. This is all you, Bremsstrahlung Jack Tyler. This is your miracle. Look at what you did.” The Doctor kissed the top of his head, pulling him against him. 

“It wasn’t me,” Brem denied. “It was all of us. You and me and Theenie and Mum. All of us. Because we’re _us_. Remember?” He twisted to meet his father’s eyes. “We don’t work alone.”

“You’re right,” the Doctor smiled down at him. “We don’t.”

“So,” said Brem, looking back down at his baby sister. “Fortuna, huh? Roman goddess of fortune.”

“There’s a statue of your mother as Fortuna, you know. Quite the story behind that one.”

“Fortuna,” said Brem, trying out the name. “Welcome to the family.” He paused. “It’s totally _crazy_.”

 _[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/65915.html)_  



	24. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (25/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (25/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)     
 **Rating** – Adult  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, Jackie, OCs  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for the kids. They're all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)   , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)   , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

Thanks to my usual characters: [](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)   for the beta; Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly; and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)  , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through. Many thanks also to all three of them for being truly excellent friends over the past couple of days.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) \- [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) \- [Ch. 9](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html) \- [Ch. 10](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53186.html) \- [Ch. 11](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53469.html) \- [Ch. 12](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/56634.html) \- [Ch. 13](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/57087.html) \- [Ch. 14](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/59445.html) \- [Ch. 15](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/60277.html) \- [Ch. 16](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61335.html) \- [Ch. 17](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61914.html) \- [Ch. 18](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62079.html) \- [Ch. 19](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62834.html) \- [Ch. 20](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/63261.html) \- [Ch. 21](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/63979.html) \- [Ch. 22](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/64484.html) \- [Ch. 23](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/65460.html) \- [Ch. 24](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/65590.html)

  


_Chapter Twenty-Five_

 

They sat for a very long time, in a heap on the floor, and Rose shed her winter jacket and leaned against the Doctor and listened as the kids told her everything they’d done, in minute detail, from the moment she’d gone missing. Or, at least, it seemed that way, Brem running through paint shades that he’d rejected for Sarah Jane’s house, sounding like Goldilocks as he relayed the choices. Athena, settled contentedly into her grandmother’s arms, kept inserting that _she_ had chosen pink. “Mosaic Pink,” Brem kept correcting, making the name drip disgust in way that made Rose smile. She had thought she had missed them while she had been trapped in the other universe, but she was astonished to realize that she had not grasped how _very much_ she had missed them. 

 

She knew the Doctor was aware of her presence against him, but he was mostly preoccupied with Fortuna, not that she blamed him. He had just found out that he had another child; she expected that he should be so fascinated by her. He tugged off Fortuna’s winter coat, her mittens and hat, revealing to full effect her maternal resemblance. 

 

“She looks like Mum,” Brem had said, brushing his hand over her fuzzy blonde hair. “How come?”

 

“That’s _allowed_ ,” Rose had said, exasperated. 

 

“Wellllllll, that’s because your mum was on her own for this one. I wasn’t around to trigger all the genes. She’s still Gallifreyan, she just missed out on—“

 

“The impossible hair,” Rose had inserted. 

 

She was so caught up in the wonder of her happy family, together and enjoying each other, that she didn’t bother to register the details of where they were, and who else was around. She was vaguely aware that there were more people there, but the only people in two universes who mattered to her were directly in front of her, clustered around her, for the first time in a very long time and everything else was superfluous. She didn’t want to think about anything but how _happy_ she was. 

 

She leaned her head on the Doctor’s shoulder, listening to him have a good-natured disagreement with Brem about whether or not dunking chocolate chip cookies in milk ruined them. She didn’t even realize she was dozing until she felt him turn his head, jostling her position, and brush his lips over her temple. 

 

“You’re exhausted,” he murmured. “I’d forgotten what it’s like to have someone who sleeps in the TARDIS.”

 

She smiled. “I’m not sure I want to go to sleep.”

 

“I don’t know how you ever _want_ to,” he replied, lightly. “It’s a tremendous waste of time.” He glanced over at Jackie. “What about you? Are you tired? I’m sure the TARDIS’ll make up a room for you.”

 

Jackie shook her head. “I think Rose is finally catching up to a year’s worth of exhaustion.”

 

“Here you go, then.” He handed Fortuna across to her, then pulled Rose up. “I am going to put your mother to bed,” he told the kids. 

 

“This sleeping _folderol_ ,” said Brem, in exasperation, but he gave her a fierce hug and allowed her to briefly cuddle him. 

 

“Mum,” said Athena, as Rose kissed her cheek, “when you wake up, can we have a tea party with the dolls? And dress them up?”

 

Dressing them up was going to take hours. Athena was particular about their outfits to the extreme. Rose was willing to bet that the Doctor, no matter how accommodating of his daughter he may have been, had never had the patience to sit through a full-on formal tea party with her dolls, and she smiled. “Yes. We can.”

 

Rose reached for his hand, let him pull her into the TARDIS, and they were halfway through the control room before she had to stop walking and lean against him.

 

“What?” he asked, turning automatically to catch her weight fully. 

 

“I _missed_ you,” she said, breathless with the intensity of it. She pressed herself into him. “God, I _missed_ you. I mean, I missed everything. I missed the TARDIS humming, and I missed the kids more than I could ever put into words, the way everything with Brem turns into a siege, just to get him not to leave random appliance parts in the hallway where I can trip over them, the way Athena needs everything to be just so, I mean, I missed _everything_. But I missed _you_ like…like…”

 

“It was a year?” he said, his hand stroking over her hair in a gesture that made her catch her breath, exhale slowly. “A year for you?”

 

“Yeah,” she said. “Almost. Just about. How long was it for you?”

 

“Twenty-two weeks.” He kissed the hollow behind her ear. “And three days. Relatively speaking. Rose, I’m sorry it was so long.”

 

“I’m just glad it wasn’t as long for you. I just longed to hear you ramble on about something _stupid_ , something I didn’t care about, something that was not at all what I wanted you to talk about. Never stop babbling at me.”

 

“I think I can manage that,” he said, and then did something she could never recall him doing, not while she was able to actually walk on her own. He was not a man who suffered from lush romantic impulses, but he lifted her into his arms and carried her into their bedroom, over to their bed. 

 

She looked around her. The room had not changed at all, was exactly as she had left it, right down the tube of mascara she’d left negligently on the dresser the morning of the day everything had fallen apart. The bed was rumpled, and she tried to remember if she’d made it before she’d left the TARDIS, or if he’d slept on it since then. He set her down beside the bed and pulled her jumper over her head with infinite gentleness, as if he were undressing Brem or Athena, following it with the long-sleeved T-shirt she’d been wearing under it. He knelt, reaching under her jeans to find the laces of her boots and to tug and loosen them until she could wriggle out of them, and she rested her hands in the thicket of his hair as she shifted. He was moving with a measured purposefulness, his face as intent as if he were performing a solemn ritual. 

 

He straightened, unbuckling the belt she was wearing and pulling it out of its loops slowly. She felt it slide around her waist, and watched his face, his dark eyes concentrating on what his hands were doing. He unbuttoned her jeans, rasped down the zipper, and pushed her jeans down, until she stepped out of them. 

 

She glanced down at what she was wearing, and wished she’d donned something better for him, something more than basic white bra and knickers. He glanced at her, from under his eyelashes, their gazes meeting for just a moment, before he reached behind her and unclasped her bra, sliding it forward and off her shoulders. He hooked his thumbs into her knickers, pulling them down the length of her legs in one slow motion, until she stepped out of those as well. 

 

He put his hands on her waist, and watched as he crawled them slowly up her ribcage, skimming over the sides of her breasts, onto her shoulders. He paused, caressing her neck, and smiled for the first time, almost a private joke. 

 

“What?” she whispered. 

 

“I have missed,” he whispered back, “this one fervid, little pulse here.” He turned his hand over, brushed a knuckle tenderly over the racing pulse point, then picked up her pendant, pulsing bright yellow.

 

She looked at it. “Is that the kids?”

 

He smiled faintly, as he watched it as well. “What makes you think that?”

 

“You’d have it scarlet by now.”

 

He looked at her then, his eyes so deep and solemn, and she could not believe how much she had missed those eyes. “We are so happy, your three Time Lords. No, four Time Lords. We are so happy, this pendant may never be able to pick up any other emotion, because our happiness will drown everything else out.” 

 

She took a step forward, away from the tangle of her discarded clothing and toward him, reaching for his tie. He dropped the pendant and watched her hands as they loosened the never-tight knot, pulling at it until she pulled it out from around his collar. His gaze on her made her even more aware of the wondrous importance of this. She hoped desperately that she was making him feel as much like a worshipped, adored being—a beingwho she was  honoured to be undressing--as he had made her feel. She pushed his suit jacket off, and began unbuttoning the buttons of his shirt. 

 

It seemed harder than it used to, and she realized in shock that she was out of practice with this. She had once undressed him unthinkingly, taking the act for granted, mostly impatient with the layers of clothing he forced her to wade though. She unbuttoned each button now slowly, pushing it through its hole and parting the shirt as she worked her way down. She pulled it out of his trousers as she finished unbuttoning, then turned her attention to unbuttoning his cuffs. He held his hands up for her, as she tackled the last few buttons and then pushed the shirt off of him. 

 

Mirroring him, she knelt to untie his Converse, and he stepped out of them. She stayed kneeling to work on his fly. The muscles of his abdomen quivered in a slight flinch, and she realized that he was tense, that if he let himself go she’d probably find herself under him before she could draw a breath. She thought of Brem’s storm of sobs and wondered how much emotion was dammed up in the Doctor—emotion that needed to be let loose, released from being buried deep within him--as she pushed his trousers down and followed them with his pants. She forced herself to go as slowly as he had, not to increase the pace just because he was clearly aroused and made a small noise, like a clamped-down groan in the back of his throat, as she moved. 

 

He stepped out of everything, and stayed still while she flattened her palms over his chest, one heart pounding under each of them. And then she smiled at him. “And I missed these two hearts,” she said. 

 

He smiled back, covered her hands with his own and then took a step closer to her. She thought he was going to kiss her, closed her eyes for it and was surprised when he fell short, moving instead to just breathe over the hair that had fallen over her temple. When he brushed his lips over the same spot, his touch was so gentle she could barely feel it. He whispered kisses over her hairline, her eyebrows, down the bridge of her nose, both cheekbones, let his tongue trace the shell of each of her ears. He ghosted kisses along her jaw line, from one ear to the other, pressed his lips against the throb of her pulse. Rose tipped her head back, lifting her hands to his hair, hearing her panting breaths loud in the room. He breathed into the hollow at the base of her neck, and Rose suddenly pulled him up, hard, by the tufts of his hair she had grabbed, and kissed him hard, nipping at his lips, slipping her tongue behind the barrier of his teeth, drawing his taste deep into her, where it pulsed warmly, a tight ball in her belly. His hands tangled into her hair, kissing her back just as fiercely, flooding her. 

 

He turned, clasping her to him, and then, with a gentle shove, he pushed her to the bed. She scrambled onto it, barely settled before the Doctor stretched out over her, recapturing her mouth. She reached for him, running her hands down his body, but he suddenly moved down her, just enough to throw off the path of her hands. He drew paths of wet endless kisses down the length of each of her arms, each finger, and it surprised her. She tried to remember if he’d ever spent so much time nibbling at the inside of her elbow. Surely she’d have remembered how divine it felt, how it made her make an embarrassing sound like a squeak that turned his lips into a smirk against her. 

 

He pressed rows of kisses along her collarbone, moving down infinitesimally toward her breasts. She became aware suddenly that he was speaking, a long slow murmur between his kisses, a language she didn’t understand, that the TARDIS wasn’t translating. _Gallifreyan_ , she thought, as the syllables of the foreign words rose and broke over her. He finally reached her breasts, curling his tongue around one nipple, then the next, sucking until she succumbed and arched into him with a cry, and then he moved on, a long slow path down the plane of her abdomen, always keeping up his persistent mumble into her skin. 

 

She moved slowly, restlessly, feeling languorous and adored. _Beloved_. He paused at the juncture of her thighs, and she coiled in anticipation. He probably felt the sudden clench of her fists in his hair, because his lips, when they pressed into the top of her thigh, were quirked into a smile. She thought she’d hate him a little more if he wasn’t so very, _very_ good at this. 

 

He attacked with sudden flashes of teeth and tongue, and she gasped. It was like flipping on a light switch that had been off for far too long, the blinding brilliance of the pleasure that licked through her. She whimpered his name, clutching at the bedspread now, as everything inside her tightened, focused completely on him. He hesitated, just as she reached the knife’s edge of the climax, and she started to protest until his tongue produced the perfect push over the edge and she felt her blood go incandescent with bliss. She may have shouted, although she wasn’t sure. She was just sure that she’d completely forgotten how _amazing_ he could make her feel. 

 

The Doctor was still until she relaxed back into the hold of the mattress, and then resumed mapping her body, moving down the length of her left leg to her foot, his tongue scraping up the sweat that he’d coaxed. When he hit her left foot, he pulled her sock off, and it was only then she realized she still had them on. He pulled the right sock off, began his journey up her right leg. He continued breathing words into her skin, in that foreign language, so it was almost a shock to hear him say, in English, “Turn over.” He’d raised his voice a bit to say it, and his voice was raspy with arousal, and she turned, feeling spellbound. 

 

He worked his way up the backs of her legs, alternating between them, lavishing attention on the back of her knees, where he knew she was ticklish. It was after the line of his kisses had moved past her rear, had begun to scatter over her spinal cord, that she swallowed thickly and forced herself to ask, “What are you saying to me?” 

 

She could not see him, facing away from him, so she had to sense the long moment of hesitation. 

 

Then he planted a line of three more kisses, toward the base of her neck, before whispering in her ear, hoarsely, “Vows. They’re Gallifreyan vows.”

 

Of all the answers she would have expected that was not one of them. They were still, together, for a long moment, before she wriggled a bit. He took the hint, moving off her, and she rolled over, pushing him onto his back. 

 

“Tell me them,” she said. 

 

“Rose—”

 

“No, it’s my turn to say them to you. Say them. I’ll repeat after you. I can do it.” She swung her leg over him to straddle him, began feathering kisses over his face the way he had done to her. 

 

He did not begin to speak until she had begun to nibble on his throat, and then he began saying them slowly, overenunciating the syllables so she could catch them. She repeated them carefully, not wanting to destroy the vow, to accidentally say something ridiculous. She delivered her vows to him, as she kissed his arms and his fingers, as she brushed her lips across his chest and belly. The syllables he was feeding her grew more laboured, were said between gasps, and she allowed herself her own smile as she scraped her teeth below his navel. But she skirted his erection, moving instead down his legs, still echoing his words. He had his socks still on, too, and she pulled them off as he had done to her. 

 

“Turn over,” she said, pausing in her recitation and waiting for him to obey. 

 

He did turn over, but he did it only after surprising her by pulling her to him and flipping her underneath him. His eyes met hers, boring through her, as he said a few more words. She repeated them, her breath catching in the middle of the phrase as he drove inside her. He closed his eyes for a moment, before forcing them open, forcing himself to continue to deliver vows to her. She forced herself to continue repeating them, as she met his impossibly slow, impossibly deep thrusts. Their words were breathless now. It required more concentration than she would ever have imagined to keep her voice even. When it was his turn to speak, she leaned back her head to gulp at air. 

 

There came a time when he did not deliver her another line, and she looked at him in surprise. 

 

“That’s it,” he said. “The end of the vow.” He leaned down and brushed his lips over hers. “Rose Tyler. I _love_ you.”

 

She smiled at him. “Quite right, too.”

 

He paused in the rhythm he was setting, a small frown flickering across his face. “Not the response I was quite hoping for.”

 

“I love you, too,” she said, seriously, fingertips on his lips. 

 

“Much better,” he grinned, and then thrust into her again, increasing the rhythm, until she was quite sure she couldn’t bear it anymore. The climax, as it grew inside of her, washed over her in more and more devastating waves, until it suddenly shattered her into a million pieces. When he followed her, her name on his lips, she had the impression that he was gathering each and every one of these pieces and burying them inside himself so they could never be fully separated ever again. 

_[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/66604.html) _   


  



	25. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (26/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (26/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)     
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, Jackie, Jack, Martha, OCs  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for the kids. They're all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)   , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/)   , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

Thanks to [](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)   for her excellent beta-work and even more excellent general awesomeness. Many thanks also to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ, who brainstormed this fic with me endlessly and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)   , who gave it the first major outside-eyes read-through.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) \- [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) \- [Ch. 9](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html) \- [Ch. 10](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53186.html) \- [Ch. 11](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53469.html) \- [Ch. 12](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/56634.html) \- [Ch. 13](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/57087.html) \- [Ch. 14](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/59445.html) \- [Ch. 15](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/60277.html) \- [Ch. 16](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61335.html) \- [Ch. 17](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61914.html) \- [Ch. 18](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62079.html) \- [Ch. 19](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62834.html) \- [Ch. 20](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/63261.html) \- [Ch. 21](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/63979.html) \- [Ch. 22](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/64484.html) \- [Ch. 23](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/65460.html) \- [Ch. 24](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/65590.html) \- [Ch. 25](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/65915.html)   
   


_Chapter Twenty-Six_

 

Rose began laughing, overflowing with joy, as their breaths began to return to normal, and the Doctor began laughing as well. He rolled with her, curling her tight against him, and they laughed together until they suddenly were not laughing anymore, until her ear was pressed against his chest, listening to his heartbeats, and she whispered, “I always knew, you know.”

 

“Always knew what?”

 

“That you loved me.”

 

“I suspected you might. Having told Brem that I would never use three words to say ‘I love you’ if I could use three hundred instead.”

 

“Aw,” she said, in mock regret for the equally mock indignation she heard in his voice. “But that’s what I love _about_ you.” She turned in his arms, to press a smiling kiss onto his lips, and he smiled back into the kiss. 

 

“You,” he said into her mouth, “were supposed to be exhausted. I was supposed to be putting you to bed.”

 

“But you did put me to bed,” she grinned, still kissing him. By now she had managed to push him completely onto his back, was sprawled across his chest. “You did such an _excellent_ job putting me to bed.”

 

“Wellllllll,” he said, smugly. “Yes. If I do say so myself.”

 

She smiled, rubbing her nose against his. “I love every daft, irritating thing about you.”

 

“You just made my hearts skip a beat each.”

 

“Tell me how you got to the other universe to get me back. What did you have Brem do?”

 

The Doctor was silent under her for a second. “Oh, I’d forgotten how very, very good you are.”

 

“Tell me,” she said, her eyes wide and solemn. “I need to know.”

 

He took a deep breath. And he began talking. “In the beginning…when you first fell through…Brem was…I mean, I don’t think I knew— _grasped_ —Brem, until I lost you. Brem is…smarter than the both of us combined. And he…They wanted you back, Rose. They wanted you back so badly. _I_ wanted you back so badly. And I let him…I mean, by then I’d gotten us mixed up, right? I let Brem get his own way for so long, because he knew so much more than me, about what Pinky was, and the thing about the crusts on the bread, and that if I gave Athena a pink ribbon it would make her happy for days.”

 

He wasn’t making any sense at all, which alarmed her. “Doctor. What did you have him do?”

 

“Nothing he wasn’t ready for, it turned out. I mean, Rose, everything turned out fine. Look at us, right? Aren’t we _fine_?”

 

“Yes. We are. And I’m sorry you had to ask him to do whatever you asked him to do.”

 

“There wasn’t any other choice, Rose. I knew that. I spent weeks pretending I didn’t know that. I did the same thing before…”

 

She finished it for him, in her head. He must have done the same thing in the Time War, pretending he didn’t know what he had to do. She bent her head into the curve of his shoulder. 

 

“I went to Sarah Jane,” he said, after a second. “I needed someone to watch the kids. Someone who wasn’t Brem. Why should Brem have to be in charge of everything? Brem used to be this happy little boy, remember?”

 

“He still seems like a happy little boy to me.”

 

“I’ve never seen Brem cry so hard as he did today, Rose. Not since he was an infant.”

 

“He needed to get that out. He’s going to be fine.”

 

“Everything I wanted for Brem, for Athena, was that they would never be like _me_. And Brem stood in that control room this morning, Rose, and made a decision to do something he didn’t want to do, for the good of _me_. And what did I do? I let him do it.”

 

Rose lifted her head to meet his eyes. “Brem forgives you for it. I forgive you for it.”

 

“He held the breach open for me. I needed someone at this end to do it, I couldn’t get through without someone holding it open for me to get back. And the only person capable of doing that was Brem. I mean, Athena helped. Had Athena been four instead of two, Athena probably could have done it. But in the end, it was Brem who grasped what he was doing.”

 

Rose was silent for a second. “If he couldn’t do it…”

 

“We would have gotten stuck. In Pete’s World. In the Void.”

 

“And he would have carried around that guilt for the rest of his life.” Rose pushed herself up onto her elbows, staring at him. “And you let him do it.”

 

The Doctor looked irritated. “I thought you forgave me for it. And anyhow, it turned out okay, didn’t it?” When Rose stayed silent, he bit out, “I didn’t have a choice, Rose. We didn’t have a _choice_. There you were, in Pete’s World, so sure I’d come and get you that you didn’t even feel it necessary to _name_ our _daughter_ until I showed up. And I couldn’t do it, Rose, without Brem doing what he did today. Am I happy about? No. Am I proud of myself for not being able to come up with another solution? Obviously not. But am I proud of _him_? Yes. And would I do it again? I would. Yes. Now go ahead. Tell me I should have made a different choice.”

 

She gazed at him for a long moment. Nothing in their lives was ever easy, was it? No choice for a Time Lord was ever a simple one. Never for the Doctor. And never for Brem. And to wish it was different was to wish, basically, that she’d fallen in love and had children with a totally different man. “I don’t want to fight about it,” she began, intending to tell him that she understood, much as she hated it, that she _understood_ , but he cut her off. 

 

“And another thing,” he said, feeling himself compelled by some self-destructive desire to get everything out on the table. “We need to talk about Jack.”

 

She blinked. “Jack? Jack Harkness?”

 

“Jack helped.”

 

“Jack…? Jack’s alive?”

 

“I told you he was, didn’t I?” asked the Doctor, irritated. 

 

Yes, she thought. He had. Busy re-building the future. She had not believed him. She had assumed he’d lied to avoid saying the awful truth out loud. She could not believe he’d been telling the truth. She also couldn’t believe that she’d just decided to allow him to lie to her, rather than straightening things out. She forced herself to think. If the Doctor had told the truth about Jack… “You took the kids to the future?”

 

“No.” The Doctor’s tone was short, to the point. “Jack helped here.”

 

“Twenty-first century London?”

 

“Well. Cardiff.”

 

“ _Twenty-first century_?” Rose persisted. “Jack is in the twenty-first century?”

 

The Doctor met her eyes, stubbornly. “Yes.”

 

She knew that he’d known all along--she didn’t even have to ask the question. She sat up, away from him, dazed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

 

“He can’t die, Rose.”

 

“He can’t what?”

 

“He can’t die. Jack died, on the Gamestation. You brought him back to life, after you killed the Daleks. A profusion of life. He can’t die.”

 

Rose stared at him, her gaze growing hard. “How long have you known this?”

 

He looked at her. 

 

“How could you have never told me this?” she demanded, furious. “How could you have kept this a _secret_? You made it sound like…like he was off being the most important person in the year 200,000!”

 

“For a little while, that was completely true.”

 

“Do _not_!” she shouted at him. “Do _not_!” But she wasn’t even sure what she was telling him not to do. 

 

He sat up in the bed, ticking off on his fingers. “Reason number one I didn’t tell you: I didn’t have the easiest regeneration, you may recall. Remember that? Ill, in Howard’s jim-jams, in your bed?”

 

“And then you got better,” Rose reminded him, between her clenched teeth. 

 

“Reason number two,” he said. “Jack really was helping to rebuild the Earth. I wasn’t lying about that. There was no reason to go to any more detail.”

 

“No reason?” she gasped, in disbelief. 

 

“Reason number three,” he said. “There’s nothing I can do to help Jack. And I didn’t want to make you feel guilty about something that you couldn’t help, that neither one of us can help. This ship is weighed down in guilt. I didn’t want to add yours to it.”

 

“Don’t pretend,” she spat out, “to have done this for _me_.”

 

“You know what, Rose?” he snapped back. “You stood in front of me on a beach and _lied_ to me—a _direct lie_ —when I asked you if you were pregnant. Forgive me if your self-righteousness here rings the slightest bit hollow.”

 

Rose blanched. “But I did that for you. Because I didn’t want you to—”

 

“Don’t tell me that was for _me_ \--and then tell me that I’m lying when I say that I didn’t tell you the whole truth about Jack for _you_.”

 

Rose opened and closed her mouth, suddenly aware that yes, he may have been right to point out a hypocrisy there. 

 

“Reason d,” he said, wearily, leaning against the headboard. “Or three. Or four. Whatever. I’ve lost count. But I’m in love with you, Rose. And I was scared you…”

 

Rose stared at him. “Did you think I loved him more? Wanted him more? Than I wanted you?”

 

“I…” He ruffled his hair. “Was scared of the answer to that question, yeah.”

 

“You _stupid_ man,” she said. “I have never wanted anything as much as I have always wanted you.”

 

“That’s so odd,” said the Doctor. 

 

“Why is that odd?”

 

“Because it’s exactly how I feel about you.”

 

She smiled at him. 

 

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Jack earlier.”

 

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Fortuna, when you asked me on the beach.”

 

“I’m sorry I couldn’t come up with a solution that didn’t have the potential to destroy Brem.”

 

“I’m sorry I slipped off the lever.”

 

“ _Rose_ ,” he said, in shock. “That was not your fault.”

 

“That never seems to stop you from apologizing.”

 

He looked at her for a long moment. She leaned forward and kissed him, to show him they were okay. He kissed her back in relief. 

 

“You’re supposed to be sleeping,” he said. 

 

But when they laid back down in the bed, he was the one who fell asleep; Rose was no longer tired. She stared at the ceiling and turned everything over in her mind. Being back. Saying Gallifreyan vows. Having the Doctor say he was in love with her, which somehow was more than just _I love you_ , which she felt she had already known. Jack, alive, forever, because of her exuberance with the Vortex, and the Doctor never telling her that he was around, to visit, whenever they wanted.

 

She rolled to her side, watching him as he slept, looking remarkably like Brem in his boyishness. She wondered how much he’d slept since she’d left them. It was unlike him to sleep for so long a time at a clip, and she kissed his cheek gently. His lips curved into a smile, but he didn’t wake. She smiled in response, before sliding out of bed. 

 

She walked over to the wardrobe and chose a new outfit, thrilled to have her old clothing back. She took a quick shower before changing, relishing the fact that she felt sore, and sated, and _happy_. The Doctor was still sleeping, so shocking an occurrence that she tiptoed over just to make sure he was still breathing. He was; she left him there, wrapped under the covers, and ventured outside. 

 

For a moment, she was bewildered, because the place where she was seemed so _empty_.She was looking for her children and her mother in a bit of a panic, when she noticed the woman at the workstation, watching her curiously. “Excuse me,” she said, walking over to her and smiling. “I’m Rose.”

 

“Oh, I know that,” said the woman. “I’m Martha Jones. I work with Jack.”

 

“Is Jack around?” Rose asked, in relief. 

 

“He got the kids pizza. They’re up eating it in one of the conference rooms. I can show you.” Martha stood up, prepared to act as tour guide. 

 

“Thanks,” said Rose, following her as they headed to a stairway. She was suddenly aware of all the women who must have stepped in to fill her role while she was away, in so many little ways. “So you helped take care of Brem and Athena? While they were holding open the breach?”

 

Martha shrugged. “They’re pretty self-sufficient.”

 

Rose smiled. “True. I suppose they’d like to think they take care of themselves. But, anyway, thanks.”

 

“I really didn’t do much,” Martha said. “Brem is…something else.”

 

Rose heard Molly calling Brem “weird” that disastrous day she’d tried to force Brem into a play group, and bristled a bit. “Brem is amazing.”

 

“Oh, no argument from me there,” said Martha, smiling. “And Athena certainly knows how to hold her own against him, which is better than I can say.”

 

Rose smiled back, feeling silly and sensitive. “More than his father and I can say, too, but don’t tell him that.”

 

Martha laughed, as she swung open the conference room door. Brem and Athena both exclaimed, “Mum!” around their bites of pizza. Brem was wearing a ridiculous, too-big-for-him captain’s hat that had slipped over one of his eyes and made him look adorable.

 

Rose smiled at them, and then glanced at Jack, who lifted up one corner of his mouth in a smile. 

 

“Well. Look at what the cat dragged in,” he said. 

 

“I always did know how to make an entrance.”

 

“That’s for sure,” he agreed. 

 

“I’m going to grab a slice of pizza,” she said to her kids, “and then I’m going to talk to Captain Jack for a bit.”

 

“Mum,” said Brem, seriously. “He’s _dressed_.”

 

“Oh, give him a few minutes,” said Rose, as she slid a piece of pizza onto a paper plate and turned to Jack. 

 

“My,” said Jack. “A few minutes? Really? I can’t wait to see what this talk’s going to be about.”

 

Rose laughed as she headed back out of the conference room, Jack following her. She walked down the stairs, back to the desks, set down her piece of pizza, turned to him, and hugged him. “Oh, Jack,” she said. “I didn’t know. He told me…”

 

“That I was dead?” guessed Jack. 

 

“No,” she admitted, almost laughing at her foolishness. “That you were alive. But I thought he was lying, so that he wouldn’t have to tell me you were dead. I couldn’t believe he would leave you behind if you were alive.”

 

“He had his reasons,” said Jack. 

 

“Not very good ones.”

 

“It’s fine. You learn not to carry grudges when you’re going to live forever. It’s just too exhausting.” 

 

“Oh, Jack. I didn’t mean it. And I can’t _believe_ he didn’t tell me you were right here in Cardiff all this time. I would have come to visit you, right away.”

 

“He does the stupidest things sometimes, Rose. And don’t apologize. I know you didn’t mean it. And living forever? Turns out it’s not so bad.”

 

Rose pulled back, perched on the desk and took a bite of her pizza, grinning. “Tell you what. If anyone in the universe ought to live forever, it should be Jack Harkness.”

 

“Just what _do_ you tell your kids about me, Rose?”

 

Rose’s eyes sparkled at him. “Nothing but the truth.” She grew sombre suddenly. “Thank you.”

 

“For what?”

 

“Helping him. When you probably should have told him to go to hell.”

 

“Yeah, well…” Jack shrugged. “I’ve never had the best judgment.”

 

“And you’ve always had a bigger heart than you ever wanted to admit.”

 

“I’ll tell you one thing,” Jack said, seriously. “He hung onto you. That makes him smarter than I ever gave him credit for.”

 

“I don’t know if he hung on, or I just wouldn’t let him let go,” said Rose. 

 

“Where is he, anyhow? I thought he was putting you to bed.”

 

“That ended up reversing itself a bit. He’s sleeping. I couldn’t. Not after…I wanted to talk to you. After he told me you were here.”

 

“So. This kid you call Brem.”

 

“Yeah,” Rose smiled. 

 

“I hear his middle name is Jack.”

 

“Yeah, but that’s after Jack Davenport. You know, the bloke  on _Coupling_.”

 

“Right. I figured.” 

 

Rose finished her pizza and tossed the paper plate away, feeling the exhaustion begin to tug at her again now that she had gotten to talk to Jack. 

 

Jack must have sensed it, because he said, “Let’s go see your children.”

 

“Your father’s sleeping,” Rose told them, when she and Jack got back to the conference room. “And, to tell you the truth, I’d like to join him. So, let’s go back to the TARDIS and relax for a bit, what do you say?”

 

“Oh, I’d _love_ to just relax,” said Jackie, and Rose figured she was probably exhausted, too. 

 

They gathered the kids into the TARDIS, and Rose left them momentarily with her mother while she slipped into her bedroom. The Doctor was still out like a light, although he did rouse himself a bit when she clambered over him trying to tug pyjama bottoms onto him. “What are you doing?” he protested, sleepily. 

 

“Getting some clothing on you so the kids can get into bed with us.”

 

“Mmmphmmhmm,” he mumbled, which made absolutely no sense to her and she ignored him and pulled her own pyjamas on. 

 

Jackie had found a guest room, and Rose rounded the kids into her bedroom, all of three of them, with Madrid in tow. Brem and Athena enjoyed the novelty of their father sleeping, shushing each other as loudly as possible as they crawled into the bed. Rose managed to get them settled, placing Fortuna between them for safe keeping, and made them promise to be quiet while everyone slept. She curled up into the Doctor, and he rolled over automatically, his arm bringing her against him. She smiled at her children, and they were the last thing she saw before she fell asleep. 

 

When the Doctor finally awoke, only minutes later, groggy from the long nap, which he was very unaccustomed to, he found Rose snugly in his arms and all three of his children regarding her with wide, astonished eyes, as if they couldn’t quite believe she was really there with them. He knew the feeling.

_[Next Chapter](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/67159.html) _   



	26. Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (27/27)

**Title** –  Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space (27/27)  
 **Author** \-- [](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/profile)[**earlgreytea68**](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/)    
 **Rating** – Teen  
 **Characters** \-- Ten, Rose, OCs  
 **Spoilers:** Through the end of S2.  
 **Disclaimer:** I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for the kids. They're all mine.)  
 **Summary** – _And then there came a day when Rose said she was having a baby._ Hijinks ensue from there. **  
Author’s Notes** – A very, very special thank-you, this time around, for everyone who came along for this journey. I appreciate each and every comment every one of you left for me, And I appreciate all the lurkers as well! There will be ficlets, many of which are written already, so this is not nearly the end of the Chaosverse. But it is the end of the first part of it.

One final, huge thank-you to [](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/profile)[**jlrpuck**](http://jlrpuck.livejournal.com/)  , who is the world's best beta and gave this a million careful readings and is a generally awesome human being. Many thanks also to Kristin-who-won't-get-an-LJ and [](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/profile)[**bouncy_castle79**](http://bouncy-castle79.livejournal.com/)  , who have both been invaluable in the writing of this fic and all subsequent fics. As long as you keep asking for Brem, you're going to keep getting Brem...

The icon was created by [](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/profile)[**punkinart**](http://punkinart.livejournal.com/)  , commissioned by [](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/profile)[**aibhinn**](http://aibhinn.livejournal.com/) , who graciously offered it to me for my use.

[Ch.1](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44269.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 2](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44581.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 3](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/44831.html#cutid1) \- [Ch. 4](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/46810.html) \- [Ch. 5](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48152.html) \- [Ch. 6](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/48512.html) \- [Ch. 7](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50386.html) \- [Ch. 8](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/50990.html) \- [Ch. 9](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/52183.html) \- [Ch. 10](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53186.html) \- [Ch. 11](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/53469.html) \- [Ch. 12](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/56634.html) \- [Ch. 13](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/57087.html) \- [Ch. 14](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/59445.html) \- [Ch. 15](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/60277.html) \- [Ch. 16](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61335.html) \- [Ch. 17](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/61914.html) \- [Ch. 18](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62079.html) \- [Ch. 19](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/62834.html) \- [Ch. 20](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/63261.html) \- [Ch. 21](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/63979.html) \- [Ch. 22](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/64484.html) \- [Ch. 23](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/65460.html) \- [Ch. 24](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/65590.html) \- [Ch. 25](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/65915.html) \- [Ch. 26](http://earlgreytea68.livejournal.com/66604.html)   


   


__

Epilogue

 

It was the Doctor’s idea to take everyone on a trip. “The least I can do,” he told Rose, and Rose agreed. So he rang Sarah Jane and bundled Jack and his Torchwood team onto the TARDIS and opened the TARDIS doors, after a quick trip, on a lovely, warm, pink-sand beach with palm trees and turquoise water. 

 

“Oh, it’s _fabulous_!” Martha exclaimed, spinning around on the beach. “Where are we?”

 

“An exotic little place called the Caribbean,” answered the Doctor, wryly, and, at the obvious disappointment of his guests, scowled. “She’s been through a lot recently,” he said, gesturing at the TARDIS. “I’m not forcing her off-planet just yet.”

 

“The Caribbean’s not bad,” said Sarah Jane, trying to be supportive. 

 

“Sarah Jane!” exclaimed Brem, pointing at the sea. “It’s the _exact_ shade we painted your kitchen!”

 

He took them to pleasure planets fairly often, but not for extended stays, and not with so many people to watch the kids. It was virtually the honeymoon they’d never had. They spent one day entirely in bed, until they straggled to their balcony to watch the sun set over the water, wrapped in nothing but his coat, which had had a special starring role in the day’s activities. They spent other days lolling on the beach, the Doctor, astonishingly, even consenting to go about in shirtsleeves (Brem, meanwhile, stubbornly kept his jumper near him; he might consent to _remove_ it, but it was always somewhere near him, being dragged through sand and salt water). Brem began a project to build the Most Impressive Sandcastle of All Time (he always called it by this grandiose title, offended when Owen once dismissed it as simply “the kid’s sandcastle;” Rose had punished Owen by embarrassing him by telling everyone the story of how parallel Owen had delivered Fortuna, and making it far gushier and more sentimental than Owen ever had been). Brem and his father spent hours with their heads bent together, sketching Gallifreyan equations in the wet sand with their fingers, as they tried to figure out the perfect way to pack sand into walls and turrets, the sun bringing out freckles on their skin. The Doctor held Athena’s hand firmly as they stood in the surf, he with his trousers rolled up, Athena giggling wildly as the waves knocked at her and she clung to her father. The Doctor even insisted on taking Fortuna out into the water, ducking her up and down in it, and Fortuna adored it. 

 

On the last night of the week, they all ate on the beach, at a small restaurant whose tables were set directly in the sand. They had the place to themselves, and the kids took advantage of it, forcing their mother and grandmother to dance with them in the sand to the music being piped over the restaurant’s speakers. The Doctor refused to be coaxed, preferring to watch instead as Rose let Brem lead her through some sort of ridiculous tango to an updated version of _Cuando Cuando Cuando_. The tango didn’t work with the beat, but Brem looked determined to force it to. Athena was content just to let her grandmother swing her around. 

 

He became aware suddenly that the dark-haired woman who worked for Jack was sitting next to him, holding Fortuna. 

 

“All that work,” she said, not unkindly. “I don’t know what I expected. But she’s just an ordinary human. You must really love her.”

 

The Doctor looked at her. “What’s your name?”

 

“Gwen,” she said. 

 

“There’s no such thing as an ordinary human, Gwen. And, even if there were, Rose definitely isn’t it.”

 

  
_Cuando Cuando Cuando_ had ended, and the next song began, and Brem suddenly began jumping in delight, bouncing over to his father. The Doctor sighed, the reaction to be expected, and he let himself be pulled up and over to the spot of sand where Rose was standing in bewilderment. 

 

“It’s Juanes,” said the Doctor. 

 

“Who’s that?” she asked. 

 

“I brought you back to Juanes!” exclaimed Brem. Jackie, pleading exhaustion, had put Athena down—although Rose noticed Jack being successful in pulling her back out to dance—and Brem was now spinning his sister enthusiastically. “I _love_ Juanes.”

 

“This is new,” said Rose, even as the Doctor pulled her into the dance, one hand in hers, the other on her waist. 

 

“It’s actually old,” he sighed. “I’m hoping he’s on the tail end of it.”

 

Rose listened for a second, following the Doctor’s lead automatically. “It isn’t even _English_. Does he even know the words?”

 

“Of course he does!” The Doctor frowned, offended on Brem’s behalf. 

 

Brem must have heard her, because he bounded over immediately. “I know the words!” She should have known it would be an invitation for him to sing to her. _Hoy me voy pero no_. 

 

She was surprised, however, when the Doctor joined in. _No se va la herida grande que mi queda…_ She stared at him. He winked, suddenly pulling her closer, his voice in her ear as he sang to her. _Por amarte, por mi culpa, por los besos que en el mar te di_. She closed her eyes and rested her head against him. The rhythm of the song was not slow, and he had dropped her hand, both hands at her hips as he led them through it. Years in the TARDIS, and the Doctor had never spoken  untranslated languages to her. Now he’d told her Gallifreyan vows and was singing to her in Spanish. 

 

It was kind of outrageously sexy, to be honest. 

 

The song was still playing but he was dancing her away from the lights, until the beat, and everyone’s voices, were almost drowned out by the whisper of the waves back and forth. She lifted her head, feeling drunk on him, on the silver-limned look of him in the moonlight. 

 

“Where did you learn how to salsa?” she asked. 

 

He made a face. “It isn’t salsa. Juanes is rokero with cumbia influences. And you have always been dismissive of my intimate knowledge of dancing.”

 

She giggled at him, as he swung her into a wide waltz step and then spun her until they both collapsed, dizzy, onto the sand, the waves just licking at their bare feet. 

 

“The TARDIS didn’t translate it,” she said. “The Spanish.”

 

“Didn’t want to ruin the rhythm of the song, I guess,” said the Doctor. 

 

“What did it mean?”

 

The Doctor paused and thought about it. “Er,” he said. “Not really the best thing to be singing to you, actually. Let’s pretend it was something devastatingly romantic.”

 

She giggled again. “It _sounded_ devastatingly romantic.”

 

Brem appeared suddenly, lugging Fortuna, which alarmed Rose slightly as she sat up. Athena came bounding behind him, twirling onto the sand next to her father. 

 

“What are you doing?” Rose asked, taking the baby from his arms. 

 

“Coming to see you,” he answered, simply, and collapsed onto the sand next to her. 

 

Rose handed Fortuna to the Doctor, who settled her on his chest, and laid back down. “Brem,” she said. “We have _got_ to do something about that jumper.”

 

“I know. I’ve been thinking of changing my outfit.”

 

“It had better not involve that ridiculous hat Jack gave you,” said the Doctor. 

 

“I’m also thinking of writing my memoirs,” continued Brem. 

 

The Doctor lifted his head to catch sight of his son over Rose. “Your _memoirs_?”

 

“I have a lot to say,” said Brem. 

 

“You’re four years old,” protested the Doctor. 

 

“You are _so obsessed_ with my age,” grumbled Brem. “Anyway, I’ve already saved the world. Or Mum and Grandma and Fort, anyway, which is almost the same thing.”

 

“Fortuna,” the Doctor corrected, trying once again, futilely again, he suspected, to resist the nickname. 

 

“And most people don’t do anything like that until they’re at least thirty,” Brem continued, ignoring his father. 

 

The Doctor sighed. 

 

Rose, smiling, asked, “What will you call your memoirs, Brem?”

 

Brem thought for a second. “ _Chaos Theory in Vortex Orbits in Relative Dimensions in Time and Space_.”

 

The Doctor sighed again. 

 

“Dad,” said Brem. 

 

“Yes,” he prompted. 

 

“Can we go there next?” Brem pointed into the sky. “We’ve never been there. Is there anything worth seeing there?”

 

The Doctor looked up into the sky. It was crystal clear, carpeted with stars. And there was not a single hint of a storm approaching. He smiled. He had no idea where they ought to go from there. Brem’s suggestion was as good as any. After all, he’d always made it up as he went along. 

 

No, he corrected himself. _They_ would make it up as _they_ went along. 

 

Together. 

 

 

 

 

  
_Finis._


End file.
